The Highveld Lions may have just three points from the first half of the RAM SLAM T20, but coach Geoffrey Toyana isn’t giving up hope of defending the title just yet.
The Lions finally got some points on the board at the fifth time of asking when they tied with the Warriors on Sunday, and the recent upward trajectory has given Toyana hope of a fightback, beginning against the Dolphins at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead on Wednesday.
“We’re still in it - there are still five games for us to play and I think this competition will start taking shape around game seven or eight,” said Toyana. “We played well against the Titans but just didn’t get over the line - I thought we dominated for 36 overs. Then against the Warriors I thought we played well to get the first three points of the 20 that we’ll probably need to get into the play-off.”
The Lions have travelled to Durban with the same squad that they used over the weekend, and will come up against a similarly injury-free side - the only player missing for the Dolphins is English seamer Graham Onions, who is still struggling with a shoulder injury picked up in December.
The Dolphins have taken 11 points from their first four games and, although captain Morne van Wyk is satisfied with the campaign so far, he has identified three areas in which they need to progress.
“We’ll take the points that we have so far, but we’re also looking for improvement in some areas,” he said. “I think how we bat in the middle eight overs is an area that we’d like to play better; death bowling is always going to stay key; and then we’d like to have one of our top three batters getting big scores.”
HEAD TO HEAD – Dolphins vs. Highveld Lions
Matches Played 11
Dolphins Win 05
Lions Win 05
Tie 00
No Result 01
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!
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