The Titans have waited until the last possible moment to launch their bid for Momentum One-Day Cup play-off qualification.
The Titans have won their last two games to stay in contention and success or failure now hinges on an all-important clash with the Warriors at Buffalo Park on Friday. The adrenaline-inducing rush to beat the deadline appears to be working for them.
“We left ourselves with a must-win situation and it’s sparked off a bit of energy,” admitted Titans coach Rob Walters. “It’s important now to keep the guys pepped up; we’ve got it all to play for tomorrow, so it’s exciting.”
The equation for the Titans is relatively simple - win with a bonus point and they qualify; win without a bonus point and they must hope that the Dolphins lose to the Cape Cobras; fail to win and they’re out.
The task for Walters’ side has been made all the more difficult by the unavailability of captain Henry Davids and all-rounder David Wiese, who departed South African shores on Thursday and Friday respectively to join up with the Proteas camp in the UAE. Graeme van Buuren and Ethy Mbhalati will replace them in the Titans XI.
However, the Titans may well be catching the Warriors at a good time, given that the Eastern Cape side will be returning home after a deflating one-run loss to the Cobras on Wednesday night.
“Such close games like that you can’t analyse too closely because there are such small margins, but one thing that we want to improve on is our starts,” said Warriors captain Davy Jacobs. “We’ve been struggling all campaign with that, and we’ve probably reached the point where we’ll be forced to look at some other options (at the top of the order), but we’ll discuss that and see what we can come up with.”
The Warriors, who could finish anywhere from first to fourth depending on Friday’s results, look likely to be without Christiaan Jonker after he picked up a niggle on Wednesday. Jacobs suggested that they would wait to find out more about Jonker’s fitness before they made any other selection calls.
The list of permutations as to who could finish where in the top four may be long and involved, but Dolphins captain Morne van Wyk hasn’t been losing himself in it ahead of Friday’s match against the Cape Cobras at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead.
“I’ve glanced at it, but even before last night’s results we were looking at Friday’s game as if it’s a play-off - just to get the intensity levels up and keep our standards high so that we can take that into the play-off should we get there,” said Van Wyk.
The Cobras are sitting pretty at the top of the table and will enjoy a home final next Friday - unless they lose and the Warriors grab a bonus-point win over The Titans.
Meanwhile the Dolphins are in third and must take some points out of Friday’s fixture to guarantee a place in Tuesday’s play-off. Van Wyk is pleased his side go into the clash after a break from the midweek fixtures.
“Playing three times a week makes it quite tough to sit down and re-group and discuss a few ideas,” he said. “It’s been nice for everybody to have a rest and get re-focused, because we’re at the stage of the season where you could go weeks without practising and your skill levels should be pretty much the same - it’s just about being fresh.”
While the Cobras may be physically jaded after a one-run win over the Chevrolet Warriors on Wednesday night, they should be mentally buoyed by their ability to come through such a tense encounter.
“We’ve had a few of those this season and one of the key factors was the way in which the guys showed calmness on the field,” said coach Paul Adams.
“It’s important that we recover from this game and pitch up tomorrow with fresh minds and get on our bike once again - to make sure we focus and want to beat the Dolphins.”
The Cobras will be without batsman Omphile Ramela, who will be writing an exam, as well as Shaheen Khan, who sat out Wednesday’s game with a side strain.
However, Beuran Hendricks has been recovering steadily from the side strain he picked up in the first game of the tournament and will travel to Durban for Friday’s match.
CURRENT STANDINGS
| Teams | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | Pts | Net RR | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Cobras | 9 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 28 | +0.241 | ||
| Warriors | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 24 | +0.498 | ||
| Dolphins | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 23 | +0.229 | ||
| Titans | 9 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 19 | +0.362 | ||
| Knights | 9 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 10 | -0.603 | ||
| Lions | 9 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 8 | -0.647 |
Related articles
- Faf du Plessis tips Rob Walter for Titans success (cricketbadger.com)
- Lions hope to turn fortunes around against Titans in Momentum One-Day Cup (cricketbadger.com)
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
Latest posts by James Buttler (see all)
- #UAE15: Bon voyage Derbyshire as Champions Yorkshire land in Abu Dhabi - March 13, 2015
- Sussex sign Mahela Jayawardene for NatWest T20 Blast - March 13, 2015
- #CWC15: Shami books India into World Cup quarter after West Indies win - March 6, 2015
