Tough match for Warriors
Warriors coach Rivash Gobind is all too aware of the threat the Knights pose as the teams square up in a four-day domestic series cricket match at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth starting Monday.
The Eastern Cape franchise pulled a superb come-from-behind victory over the Dolphins in Durban on Thursday and with that fresh in their minds the players will be confident.
The Knights, by contrast, suffered a crippling defeat against the Lions.
But Gobind is warning his troops not to get too cocky and to hit the reset button as they approach the match.
“With franchise cricket I always say that any given day, any given game, the teams are always close together and it’s what you produce day in and day out,” he said.
“So expect them to bounce back from that. We need to prepare very well and we need to take some lessons out of what we did because there’s definitely some areas we can improve on.”
Gobind said he was pleased with the spirit his team had displayed at Kingsmead last week after conceding a 160-run first innings deficit to eventually win by 93 runs.
“We started the game okay, but then we collapsed from 120 odd for two to 175,” he said.
“After that we got together as a group, understanding very well that we needed to win pretty much every session from there. We went a long way to doing that, bar a few sessions, so it was an outstanding performance for the guys to come back after being so far behind after the first innings.
“This group of guys have a lot of personal pride and pride in the team. That shone through brightly over these last few days and I'm very pleased.”
Colin Ackermann scored a match-winning second innings century for the Warriors while fast bowler Sisanda Magala had a good game with both bat and ball. Opening batsman Gihahn Cloete also made two half centuries while Jon-Jon Smuts took four wickets in the second innings to help bowl his team to victory.
Meanwhile, Knights coach Nicky Boje expects his side to come back stronger this week after the Lions loss. “Yes, it was a disappointing defeat, we made some mistakes throughout, but that’s also part of the game,” Boje said. “We’re looking forward to bouncing back.”