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Cape Town - The Cape Cobras have lost both their overseas pro and a senior player as they look to bounce back from an opening round defeat in the Ram Slam T20 in a tricky fixture against the up-and-coming Warriors at Boland Park on Friday.
The Cobras were punished for a sloppy performance last weekend when they went down by seven wickets to the Highveld Lions, but their task of tightening up and getting their title defence back on track was made harder with the departure of all-rounder Kieron Pollard and an injury to Robin Peterson.
Pollard left Cape Town this week after he was called up to the West Indian squad that is currently in Sri Lanka while Peterson broke a bone in his hand whilst fielding against the Lions.
Rory Kleinveldt also missed that game after falling on his shoulder during the warm-ups, and so the Cobras will need to evaluate their options for Friday’s game.
“We’re still a good solid squad and we’ll look to play nice and positively and get some momentum going in this competition,” said coach, Paul Adams.
“There’s always going to be a winner and a loser, but there’s also the matter of how you lose and we weren’t happy with the way we lost (against the Lions). We’ve spoken about it in depth, particularly the way that we handled the pressure situations.”
One team that was given an early opportunity to experience high-pressure moments is the Warriors, who had their tournament opener against the Knights reduced to six overs per side, and then had to play a Super Over.
The Warriors ultimately prevailed, and should be stronger for the experience.
“It’s brought in a bit of belief in terms of situation play and executing under pressure,” said coach, Malibongwe Maketa. “We know that we still need to improve, but the fact that we were put into that situation so early in the competition was gold for us.
“We’re looking forward to getting 20 overs in now so that we can get a bit more structure in terms of the planning that we’ve done, and see how we come through as a team.”
