Narrow defeats and rain end side’s brave limited-overs campaign.
DESPITE dramatically finishing outside of the Momentum One Day Cup competition playoff spot, Chevrolet Warriors coach Piet Botha yesterday congratulated his charges for the impressive season they had.
The Warriors lost their last game of the competition by a crushing seven wickets to the Unlimited Titans at Buffalo Park on Friday night.
Man of the Match Heino Kuhn with 104 settled matters with a magnificent opening partnership of 153 with Francois le Clus, who scored 73, as the visitors cantered to victory in search of 250. JJ Pienaar added salt to the wounds with 44 not out.
Earlier an elegant 74 from Ashwell Prince and a fighting, steady 52 from skipper Davy Jacobs took the Warriors to 249 all out in the 50th over.
The two added 83 for the fifth-wicket and gave some respectability to the innings after four early wickets had gone for only 75.
Left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe was the pick of the Titans bowlers with 3/32 off his 10 overs which included one maiden.
Kuhn, who hit 13 fours, and Le Clus, (9x4, 1x6), showed little respect for the Warriors’s bowling attack with fastmedium bowler Andrew Birch plundered for 41 runs off four overs.
Medium-pacer Lundi Mbane was hit for 59 off 8.5 overs and left-arm spinner Jon-Jon Smuts conceded 50 runs off 10 overs. The other spinner Simon Harmer went for 51 off seven overs.
The Warriors were on the back of a mentally racking one-run loss to the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras two days earlier, a game in which a victory would have sent them straight to the final.
Botha said he believes his charges were affected mentally by their narrow loss to the Cobras more than they expected.
“Firstly I must say even though we are disappointed with not making the play-offs, we generally played great cricket all season and I think the loss to the Cobras affected us more mentally than we thought,” he said.
“From a team’s point of view, we were gutted with the loss and had to recover within a day to face the Titans who had nothing to lose and that was really tough for the boys,” said Botha.
A 71-run victory for the Sunfoil Dolphins against the Cobras and a bonus point win for the Titans meant the Warriors dropped from second to fourth on the log, missing out on the play-offs by run-rate.
The Warriors finished tied on 24 points with the Titans, while the Dolphins secured second place with the Cobras holding on to their home final irrespective of the loss.
The Warriors finished the season with four wins, three losses and three no results (rained out) games from 10 matches.
Botha lauded his batting order this season while highlighting he was pleased with the general performance of the squad this season.
“It was a matter of close but still very far from where we wanted to be . . . we won really close games but at the same time lost some games we shouldn’t have lost.
“Also the fact we had two games against the Knights and the Lions, who were both going through a rough patch, washed out was also frustrating because those could have been maximum points for us.
“But credit to our batting order this season. Runs flowed and that was impressive,” concluded Botha.
The Dolphins play the Titans in Durban tomorrow in the semifinal, with the winner set to play the Cobras at Newlands on Friday.
The Warriors will regroup again on Wednesday and begin preparations for their Sunfoil Series campaign which gets underway next week in East London.
Warriors fall just short of play-offs
DESPITE dramatically finishing outside of the Momentum One Day Cup competition playoff spot, Chevrolet Warriors coach Piet Botha yesterday congratulated his charges for the impressive season they had.
The Warriors lost their last game of the competition by a crushing seven wickets to the Unlimited Titans at Buffalo Park on Friday night.
Man of the Match Heino Kuhn with 104 settled matters with a magnificent opening partnership of 153 with Francois le Clus, who scored 73, as the visitors cantered to victory in search of 250. JJ Pienaar added salt to the wounds with 44 not out.
Earlier an elegant 74 from Ashwell Prince and a fighting, steady 52 from skipper Davy Jacobs took the Warriors to 249 all out in the 50th over.
The two added 83 for the fifth-wicket and gave some respectability to the innings after four early wickets had gone for only 75.
Left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe was the pick of the Titans bowlers with 3/32 off his 10 overs which included one maiden.
Kuhn, who hit 13 fours, and Le Clus, (9x4, 1x6), showed little respect for the Warriors’s bowling attack with fastmedium bowler Andrew Birch plundered for 41 runs off four overs.
Medium-pacer Lundi Mbane was hit for 59 off 8.5 overs and left-arm spinner Jon-Jon Smuts conceded 50 runs off 10 overs. The other spinner Simon Harmer went for 51 off seven overs.
The Warriors were on the back of a mentally racking one-run loss to the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras two days earlier, a game in which a victory would have sent them straight to the final.
Botha said he believes his charges were affected mentally by their narrow loss to the Cobras more than they expected.
“Firstly I must say even though we are disappointed with not making the play-offs, we generally played great cricket all season and I think the loss to the Cobras affected us more mentally than we thought,” he said.
“From a team’s point of view, we were gutted with the loss and had to recover within a day to face the Titans who had nothing to lose and that was really tough for the boys,” said Botha.
A 71-run victory for the Sunfoil Dolphins against the Cobras and a bonus point win for the Titans meant the Warriors dropped from second to fourth on the log, missing out on the play-offs by run-rate.
The Warriors finished tied on 24 points with the Titans, while the Dolphins secured second place with the Cobras holding on to their home final irrespective of the loss.
The Warriors finished the season with four wins, three losses and three no results (rained out) games from 10 matches.
Botha lauded his batting order this season while highlighting he was pleased with the general performance of the squad this season.
“It was a matter of close but still very far from where we wanted to be . . . we won really close games but at the same time lost some games we shouldn’t have lost.
“Also the fact we had two games against the Knights and the Lions, who were both going through a rough patch, washed out was also frustrating because those could have been maximum points for us.
“But credit to our batting order this season. Runs flowed and that was impressive,” concluded Botha.
The Dolphins play the Titans in Durban tomorrow in the semifinal, with the winner set to play the Cobras at Newlands on Friday.
The Warriors will regroup again on Wednesday and begin preparations for their Sunfoil Series campaign which gets underway next week in East London.
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