Knights may have the edge

The Knights, with the firepower of David Miller and Marchant de Lange, would be most people’s favourites to win the Momentum One-Day Cup play-off they will host against the Warriors in Bloemfontein tomorrow.

But the Warriors beat the Knights in both round-robin games this season, so perhaps the favourites on paper don’t hold that much of an advantage over the Eastern Cape side, as they face off for a place in next Friday’s final against the Titans at Centurion.

“Those wins probably don’t mean too much in a knockout game, but I would say that we have good memories of playing the Knights this season,” Warriors coach Malibongwe Maketa told Saturday Citizen yesterday.

“We won two tight games against them – here in Port Elizabeth we won by six runs in a low-scoring game that went right down to the wire, and in Kimberley we defended 185 by bowling them out for just 121.”

Knights coach Nicky Boje would probably say the same, however, after his team scraped a thrilling one-wicket win over the Dolphins in Durban to finish second and earn hosting rights.

Miller (above) was out for a firstball duck in that game, dismissed by the superb Imran Tahir, so he will be smarting after not being able to have his say against his former employers. He is the obvious dangerman with the bat, but Rudi Second and Pite van Biljon are also threats.

The Warriors’ attack is more of a makeshift one that uses several bowlers, especially spinners, while Knights fast bowler De Lange is well-supported by fellow seamers Dillon du Preez, Mbulelo Budaza and Shadley van Schalkwyk.

But perhaps it is Jon-Jon Smuts who will have the final say between these teams as the Warriors captain was Man-of-the-Match in Kimberley with extraordinary figures of 4/4 in 5.3 overs and in Port Elizabeth, where he scored 132.