Warriors looking to ‘General’ Smuts in battle with Knights
ONE man doesn’t make a team – or so the old saying goes – but you wouldn’t be wrong today to say that “as goes Jonjon Smuts, so go the Warriors” when the Eastern Cape franchise meet the VKB Knights in the Momentum One-day Cup play-off in Bloemfontein.
In all the statistical categories – bar fielding – Smuts is the Warriors’ top player. Leading run-scorer, leading wickettaker, highest individual score, all belong to the 28-year-old skipper who this season got his first taste of the international arena when he represented the Proteas in the three T20 Internationals against Sri Lanka.
In the league encounters between the two sides, Smuts was the dominant performer. When the Warriors defended 185 in Kimberley on February 25, it was Smuts – who’d top scored with 33 – who produced the defining performance claiming 4/4 in 5.3 overs as the Warriors won by 64 runs.
Three weeks later, at St George’s Park he top scored with 132 as the Warriors won by six runs. That came a week after he’d scored 173 against the Cobras at Newlands, the second highest score in this season’s One-day Cup behind Aiden Markram’s 183 against the Lions.
Smuts is obviously in a rich vein of form this season. He was equally as instrumental in the Warriors making it all the way to the final of the T20 Challenge earlier in the summer, so nullifying him, with the bat and the ball will be key to the Knights’ chances today.
On paper the Knights have greater depth in their side and the trio of Rudi Second, Dave Miller and Pite van Biljon have been the mainstays with the bat for them. They are backed up by some good bowling – Marchant de Lange has led the attack well and Aubrey Swanepoel’s slow bowling has provided some good control.
Miller is obviously the big wicket the Warriors will be targeting. On Thursday night in Durban it took a piece of terrific craft from Imran Tahir to get rid of the prodigious left-hander. Miller has clearly taken a step up as far as his batting is concerned this season and he’s scored runs in all formats and at international level too. That kind of consistency has been missing from Miller’s game for most of his career, and speaks to a greater maturity in his batting. Coming off a first baller in the last game, Miller will expect to make a big impact today, and if that happens, then Smuts will need to have the game of his life for the Warriors to qualify for their second limited overs final this season.
Today’s match starts at 10am.