Ingram back to shake up Lions at Buffalo Park
FORMER Proteas batsman Colin Ingram returns to the Warriors line-up for their crucial Sunfoil Series cricket match against the Highveld Lions starting at Buffalo Park, in East London, today.
Ingram has not played a red ball game for the Warriors since facing up to the Knights at the same venue in January last year. The 31-year-old announced at the start of this season he would take a break from multi-day cricket in an effort to help his body recover from a troublesome knee injury.
By all accounts, the left-hander is over the worst and ready to take up the challenge with his franchise teammates as they attempt to continue their push for silverware.
“We have included Colin into the squad,” said coach Malibongwe Maketa. “He’s feeling better and he’s gone through all his tests. He’s feeling good and he believes his knee will hold up until the end of the season. So we are going to try and manage him and make sure we help him do just that.”
The Warriors need to win their remaining two matches starting with the Lions today and then rely on some other results to go their way if they are to stand a chance of winning the trophy. Their final game is against the Titans in Benoni next week.
“There is still so much to play for. If we were given this situation at the start of the season we would have taken it with two games to go. We have to go out and win the next two games to be up there as contenders for the championship. So we are very keen to get cracking tomorrow,” said Maketa.
While the side has enjoyed a decent amount of success at Buffalo Park in white ball cricket, their multi-day performances have been lacking.
“We have struggled to get results in four-day cricket in East London of late. We have to get out of that box and attempt to do something different to get a win in this game,” said Maketa.
“For all the teams it’s about going all out for the victory this weekend. I think there will be a lot of aggressive cricket especially with the weather around here in East London. We will probably need to try and find a result in two-and-a-half or three days. So it’s going to be a good challenge for us.”
Maketa hopes Ingram will bulk up and stabilise a batting order which failed to fire against the Knights in the team’s previous fixture. South Africa’s most recent bowling sensation Duanne Olivier collected 11 wickets in that match as the Knights won by a comfortable 121 runs.
“Duanne really bowled out of his skin against us in the last game. He has just shown the amount of progress he has made since making the national team. But we didn’t bat as well as what we would have liked to in the first innings. As a unit the Knights bowled well but we contributed to most of our dismissals.”
Ingram coming in for Andrew Birch is the only change to the squad which did duty in Bloemfontein.
The squad is: Colin Ackermann, Colin Ingram, Gihahn Cloete, Gionne Koopman, Simon Harmer, Sisanda Magala, Edward Moore, Lesiba Ngoepe, Anrich Nortje, Tladi Bokako, Mohammed Vallie, Basheer Walters, Somila Seyibokwe. —