Dolphins mentor sure of new life in side
COACH Grant Morgan admits the Hollywoodbets Dolphins are still hurting from their 20-over final loss at the weekend, but he is hopeful they can bounce back when they begin their Momentum One-Day Cup campaign against the WSB Cape Cobras in Durban today.
The KwaZulu-Natal franchise suffered a heavy seven-wicket loss to the Multiply Titans in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge decider in Centurion on Saturday night.
But they are desperate to bounce back in what is the first of two matches for them before the festive break.
“We have to bounce back from a massive disappointment,” Morgan reflected.
“It wasn’t our plan to let our fans, our loved ones and the ones who support us down the way we did on Saturday.
“We’ve had a heart-to-heart talk among the guys. We know there’s no excuse.
“We had a plan, but it just didn’t come off. It spiralled and it got ugly quickly.
“I can’t say we panicked, but I feel my players got their execution wrong. We’ll learn from it and hopefully move on.”
Both of the Dolphins’ home matches – one in the regular season and their semifinal – were rained out in previous competition, with more wet weather forecast for Durban again this week.
The two sides are expecting to make plenty of changes after losing players to the Standard Bank Proteas.
Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma and Vernon Philander will miss out for the visitors, while the hosts will be minus Keshav Maharaj and Andile Phehlukwayo.
“I’ve never really thought much about losing some of the guys to the Proteas,” Morgan said.
“That’s how focused I was on the final. Them leaving us will certainly give us some other challenges. “But we do have guys in form and so there are various options.”
Cobras coach Ashwell Prince saw his side start the T20 competition with three successive losses, before they stormed back to reach the semifinals in emphatic fashion.
But rain in Durban meant their tournament ended in heartbreak.
Prince believes a good start to the 50over season is important, but also believes there were good lessons learnt from their 20-over campaign.
“We had a disastrous start to the T20 competition, so we want to start this competition in the best way possible,” he said.
“But we also know that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t, if you consider how we turned things around in the T20 competition.
“At the end there was only one team that won more games than us, so we can take heart from that. The guys showed a lot of character and if they do that again, we’ll have every chance of success in this competition as well.”