Coach Malibongwe Maketa says the Warriors will be looking to finish the group stage of the Momentum One-Day Cup with a flourish.
The Eastern Cape franchise have three games remaining in the round-robin campaign starting with Knights in East London on Sunday followed by the Dolphins in Durban and finishing off against the Cobras in Port Elizabeth the following Saturday.
Maketa’s side are second on the table, heady heights for them in comparison with recent seasons. At this stage of the competition in the past, the Warriors, more often than not, found themselves chasing the pack in order to qualify.
This time, it is different and they may not need to win all of their matches to qualify depending on how other results pan out.
But Maketa says their aim is to win all three games, a feat, if achieved, may even see them finish top of the table and propel them straight into a home final.
“We want to win our last three games and not leave anything to chance. There’s both excitement and pressure about the fact that we can qualify for the playoffs. There’s an excitement of what’s ahead and there’s also the pressure of being in a place we haven’t been in a while,” Maketa said.
To achieve their objective they will need their “gun” players to be firing and Christiaan Jonker is one of those who will be wanting to make his presence felt.
He has been one the Warriors’ best batsmen this season. His average is 44.50 in the middle order but more importantly his strike rate is the third best in the competition at 102.29 runs per 100 balls.
He is known as the “finisher” in the side and has the ability to cripple attacks in the closing stages.
He has though, on a couple of occasions, got himself out with the finishing line in sight this season.
“Jonks know very well what we spoke about after the game . He’s a big player for us and he is a finisher. We expect him to, obviously not all the time, put those games to bed.
“It’s also part of growth for him. At the moment the lower order has not fired as well as we know it can so there is a lot of pressure on him to make sure he gets us into position where we can win the game but most importantly that he actually takes us home.”
Maketa says the victory over the Titans on Sunday came at the right time after the narrow loss to the Lions two days before.
“The win on Sunday was very, very important after starting off so disappointingly where we lost a game we should have won. Mentally we were in a dark space. To get over that and come out and win was great credit to the guys,” he said.
“There has just been a lack of experience at times but we’ve spoken about it. We still have much work to do. We don’t want to leave ourselves in a situation where we have to pull back games all the time.”
There have been some selections riddles of late. Not many teams can afford to leave out a national player but Simon Harmer was omitted from the Warriors side in Johannesburg last Friday.
“Selection has been a tough challenge for us. We always looked at other teams and we’ve thought we’d love to be in the position where we can leave out national players,” Maketa said.
“Now that we in that position ourselves it’s a bit daunting. It’s not easy to leave out some of your best players but in terms of balance it has to happen obviously depending on where we play.”
Maketa wants his gallant Warriors to bag maximum points
The Eastern Cape franchise have three games remaining in the round-robin campaign starting with Knights in East London on Sunday followed by the Dolphins in Durban and finishing off against the Cobras in Port Elizabeth the following Saturday.
Maketa’s side are second on the table, heady heights for them in comparison with recent seasons. At this stage of the competition in the past, the Warriors, more often than not, found themselves chasing the pack in order to qualify.
This time, it is different and they may not need to win all of their matches to qualify depending on how other results pan out.
But Maketa says their aim is to win all three games, a feat, if achieved, may even see them finish top of the table and propel them straight into a home final.
“We want to win our last three games and not leave anything to chance. There’s both excitement and pressure about the fact that we can qualify for the playoffs. There’s an excitement of what’s ahead and there’s also the pressure of being in a place we haven’t been in a while,” Maketa said.
To achieve their objective they will need their “gun” players to be firing and Christiaan Jonker is one of those who will be wanting to make his presence felt.
He has been one the Warriors’ best batsmen this season. His average is 44.50 in the middle order but more importantly his strike rate is the third best in the competition at 102.29 runs per 100 balls.
He is known as the “finisher” in the side and has the ability to cripple attacks in the closing stages.
He has though, on a couple of occasions, got himself out with the finishing line in sight this season.
“Jonks know very well what we spoke about after the game . He’s a big player for us and he is a finisher. We expect him to, obviously not all the time, put those games to bed.
“It’s also part of growth for him. At the moment the lower order has not fired as well as we know it can so there is a lot of pressure on him to make sure he gets us into position where we can win the game but most importantly that he actually takes us home.”
Maketa says the victory over the Titans on Sunday came at the right time after the narrow loss to the Lions two days before.
“The win on Sunday was very, very important after starting off so disappointingly where we lost a game we should have won. Mentally we were in a dark space. To get over that and come out and win was great credit to the guys,” he said.
“There has just been a lack of experience at times but we’ve spoken about it. We still have much work to do. We don’t want to leave ourselves in a situation where we have to pull back games all the time.”
There have been some selections riddles of late. Not many teams can afford to leave out a national player but Simon Harmer was omitted from the Warriors side in Johannesburg last Friday.
“Selection has been a tough challenge for us. We always looked at other teams and we’ve thought we’d love to be in the position where we can leave out national players,” Maketa said.
“Now that we in that position ourselves it’s a bit daunting. It’s not easy to leave out some of your best players but in terms of balance it has to happen obviously depending on where we play.”
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