How to snare a lion?
Proteas star Nortje set to miss Buffalo Park clash
A high-scoring encounter is on the cards as the Warriors welcome the bizhub Highveld Lions to East London for their Momentum One-Day Cup match at Buffalo Park on Friday.
The table-topping Warriors will have their work cut out for them against a hungry Lions unit, who will be eager to make their way up the table from their current fourth place position.
Buffalo Park has seen a number of cracking high-scoring limited-overs matches in the past few seasons and another could be on the cards between two confident teams.
The Warriors will be brimming with confidence as the only unbeaten team left in the competition, having picked three wins and one no-result.
This included a thumping eight-wicket win over the Hollywoodbets Dolphins in their last match in Durban on Tuesday, which elevated them above the side that they currently share the one-day trophy with.
The Warriors will be without the services of speedster Anrich Nortje who has joined up with the Proteas and that will be a blow.
But with the rest of their bowling contingent, consisting of Sisanda Magala, Andrew Birch and Lutho Sipamla along with the spin options of captain Jon Jon Smuts and Colin Ackermann as well as a few parttimers in the wings if the need arises, they should be well covered.
Their in-form batting department will be hungry for runs with opener Gihahn Cloete, Smuts, Lesiba Ngoepe, Colin Ackermann and local Border born and bred up-and-coming Sinethemba Qeshile keen to get stuck in.
The Lions however should be fired up for the match after picking up their first win of the competition, an eight-wicket mauling of the Titans in a highscoring game.
Visiting captain Temba Bavuma was the man-of-the-match in that match, scoring a superb unbeaten 117 to power his team to a big victory that got them on the board and into the playoff positions.
“It was a massive win for us,” said Bavuma.
“I think if you look at the start to our one-day campaign, it hasn’t been ideal.
“We’ve lost two and we had two rained out, so we needed to try and get some momentum somewhere.
“I’d like to believe that this is the game.”
The Lions have enjoyed a superb season so far, winning the four-day competition while a large number of their players were in the Jozi Stars team that triumphed in the inaugural Mzansi Super League.
They will thus be high on confidence and keen to add even more silverware to their trophy-laden season.
But Bavuma admits that they must not look too far ahead at this early stage in the competition.
“It’s the old cliché take it game by game,” said Bavuma.
“I think it’s important that we’re still trying to find our game, how we’re going to go about playing one-day cricket and I believe if we can find that then we can take on any team.
“But for now it’s just the next game that we’re focused on.”
The action gets under way at 1.30pm on Friday afternoon and should conclude by 10pm.
We’ve lost two and we had two rained out, so we needed to try and get some momentum somewhere