Warriors on tightrope against Lions
THE Warriors enter the last chance saloon this evening in their quest to reach the Momentum One-Day Cup playoff on Sunday.
The Eastern Cape franchise takes on the Highveld Lions in a clash at St George’s Park today (2pm) that means very little but pride to the visitors but everything to the home side.
A crushing loss at the hands of the Titans in Benoni on Tuesday means the Warriors are in a must-win situation. Anything less than a victory will see them tumble out of the competition. As a result of their log position, the fourth-placed Warriors are unlikely to host a playoff but a win would almost certainly clinch third position and an away playoff berth.
The second-placed Dolphins and third-placed Knights play each in Durban, also today.
If the Warriors win against the Lions, the loser of the clash in Durban will be knocked out to make way for captain JonJon Smuts’ team. Those are the simple permutations if one excludes the possibility of a tie or a rain-out in Durban.
The Warriors will not go down without a fight, especially at St George’s Park where they have not lost in any format of the game this season.
They have played eight games at St George’s this season and have won seven of them with the remaining match being abandoned because of rain. Five of those seven victories have come in white ball cricket which underlines their dominance in limited-overs in Port Elizabeth.
Having been outplayed by the Titans, the Warriors will be looking to the comforts of home to give them the edge tonight.
But coach Malibongwe Maketa is not reading too much into statistics.
“In these games it doesn’t matter if you are home or away. It’s about who handles the pressure situations better.
“We take pride in the fact that we have had a few knockout games in the last few seasons with the same group of players. Hopefully that will stand us in good stead against the Lions,” said Maketa.
The coach is looking for a much-improved performance from his middle-order after it failed in what was a highlyanticipated match against the Titans on Wednesday.
“We didn’t rock up at all in Benoni,” Maketa said yesterday. “Unfortunately, the top order has been doing all the work. It was a great opportunity for our middle-order, who have not really had a chance to stake their claim until Tuesday. They didn’t take it which was quite disappointing with the amount of work they have put in.
“But as much as we had an off-day on Tuesday, we do believe these guys are good enough and we want to back them all the way.”
Maketa knows there margin for error today.
“For us it’s a quarterfinal. We are looking forward to the pressure. We have to make sure we rock up and preform the basic skills that we pride ourselves on. We need to take care of ourselves by winning and whatever happens that side is out of our control,” Maketa added.
A likely Warriors team is: Jon-Jon Smuts (capt), Gihahn Cloete (wk), Colin Ingram, Kelly Smuts, Colin Ackermann, Jerry Nqolo, Yaseen Vallie, Lesiba Ngoepe, Andrew Birch, Sisanda Magala, Aya Gqamane The remaining matches are: Today: Warriors v Lions, Dolphins v Knights, Titans v Cobras Sunday: 2nd v 3rd qualifier March 31: Final is no