Vital match for Warriors
THE Warriors find themselves in familiar territory as they head into their last three Momentum One-Day Cup round-robin games needing to win the whole bang shoot.
Caretaker coach Rivash Gobind’s team are in Durban today attempting to execute an all-important snatch-and-grab victory over the Dolphins at Kingsmead.
Today’s game included, the Eastern Cape side has three matches remaining in the competition and may have to win all of them to qualify for the four-team semifinals.
That may not even be good enough for them to progress, but they will be hanging on to the hope that the Lions will slip up along the way in the home straight.
It is not the first time the Warriors have needed to accomplish this.
They will, however, need to raise their performance levels substantially if they are to pull it off.
“We are going to try and win all three,” care-taker coach, Rivash Gobind said from Durban yesterday. “It’s not a position that’s unfamiliar to us. We generally leave it quite late, so from that point of view the guys are pretty calm and relaxed. Now we just got to go and do what is in front of us.”
The team only have nine points from their seven matches played until now and occupy fifth position on the log. The Lions are in fourth spot with two more points from the same amount of games.
So the highveld side hold their fate in their own hands, and three wins from three will secure passage into the semis for them and in all likelihood knock the Warriors out.
It is a tough situation for the Warriors to be in, but it has been of their own doing. Disappointing back-to-back home losses in East London against the Lions and the Titans from favourable positions have cost them dearly.
Gobind has tried a number of new faces in the team’s seven matches so far in this competition, but has only picked up two wins. Team combinations have varied from game to game, sometimes dramatically, with Gobind having used 18 players spread over those games.
His 13-man squad for today’s match in Durban has a more familiar look about it, and sees allrounder Colin Ackermann and seamer Andrew Birch coming back into the squad, as well as opening bat Eddie Moore. There is a another new face in the squad in Lutho Sipamla, although Warriors fans will know him from other competitions. Kolpak allrounder Simon Harmer has been omitted, having taken five wickets in five games at five an over.
“We have a couple of experienced guys back in and that does help. So there will be a couple more heads for Jon-Jon (Smuts) to bounce ideas off,” Gobind said.
“They [Ackermann and Birch] have done quite a lot there in the past, so I am hoping they can repeat that coming back from a short break.”
If the Warriors can sneak a win in Durban tonight, they can head back to the Eastern Cape with confidence for their last two round-robin games against the Knights (Wednesday, East London) and Cobras (next Friday, Port Elizabeth).
The Warriors squad is: Gihahn Cloete, Edward Moore, Clyde Fortuin, Lesiba Ngoepe, Jon-Jon Smuts (capt), Christiaan Jonker, Colin Ackermann, Sisanda Magala, Andrew Birch, Lutho Sipamla, Ayabulela Gqamane, Anrich Nortje, Yaseen Vallie.