Bounce-back planned for Buffalo Park
Warriors confident of playing well in East London
THE Warriors are aiming to bounce back when they take on the Build nat Cape Cobras in the Momentum One-Day Cup competition at Buffalo Park tomorrow. The hosts crashed to a 44-run defeat in their opening match against the Lions in Johannesburg on Sunday and the team will be eager to get their campaign up and running in East London tomorrow.
Warriors batsman Colin Ingram said: “We always play nicely in East London – the guys are really comfortable playing [there].
“We do well here and the guys are looking forward to bouncing back from the first loss.
“Around the country at the moment there is no team that really stands above the rest, so every match is a tough one.”
A run-fest could be on the cards, with both the Warriors and Cobras having strong batting lineups, and if the CSA T20 competition was any indication, with two very entertaining high-scoring games played, we could be in for some big scores.
“In recent years, the ground has been quite batting-friendly, with a smallish outfield, and hopefully we can be on the right side of it this time,” Ingram said.
“We have guys who bat positively and our bowlers have been growing over the last few years and although they didn’t make it right in our first game I am sure they will be dead keen to set it right [tomorrow].”
In Sunday’s Lions match, a massive first-innings 178-run first-wicket partnership between Reeza Hendricks (101) and Stephan Cook (81) set the tone for the hosts to put a big 329/7 total on the board.
The Warriors were then in a strong position around the midway point in the match, with Ingram scoring the innings high 69 and Gihahn Cloete (50) putting on a 122-run second-wicket stand, but once both fell the chase steadily fell away.
“You never like to start with a loss. Their opening partnership really put us under a lot of pressure. “They started really well and we were under pressure from that moment,” Ingram said.
“We had a slow start with the bat, then we got going and were in the game, but unfortunately Gihahn and me going out in the same over was a big killer in our run chase.
“We were both pretty disappointed.
“It is always nice to get out and get some runs, but I was disappointed.
“If you are going to chase down a big total as we needed to, you want to be in there until the closing overs and get a big hundred.”
Tomorrow’s match gets under way at 2pm and will be shown live on Super Sport 2.
‘ We have guys who bat positively and our bowlers have been growing over the last few years