Warriors out to please home fans
THE Warriors are aiming to bounce back when they take on the Buildnat Cape Cobras in the Momentum OneDay Cup Competition at Buffalo Park tomorrow afternoon.
The hosts crashed to a 44-run defeat in their opening match against the Lions in Johannesburg on Sunday and the team will be very eager to get their campaign up and running in East London tomorrow.
“We always play nicely in East London, it is a place where the guys are really comfortable playing, we do well here and the guys are looking forward to bouncing back from the first loss,” said Warriors batsman Colin Ingram.
“But the Cobras are a good side, in fact 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 in the match with both the Warriors and Cobras boasting 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 on the day.
Over the past few 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,” claimed Ingram.
“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 on Wednesday.”
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 always under pressure from that moment,” said Ingram.
“We had a slow start with the bat and then we got going and were in the game, but then unfortunately myself and Gihahn getting out in the same over was a big killer in our run chase and we were both pretty disappointed with that.
“It is always nice to get out in the middle and get some runs, but I was really disappointed because if you are going to chase down a big total like we needed to you want to be in there until the closing overs and get a big hundred, but I will take the positives out of it.”
Tomorrow’s match gets under way at 2pm and will be shown live on SuperSport 2.