Cape Town - Cape Cobras coach Ashwell Prince is relieved to have got off the mark in the One-Day Cup and is now looking to build on that when they host the Titans at Newlands.
The home side had a successful appearance against the
Warriors in midweek, winning their first match of the competition by 57 runs in
East London. That came on the back of a heavy defeat to the Knights in their
opening match.
It was a pleasing outcome for the Cobras considering they
took three games to get going in the T20 Challenge and five in the Sunfoil
Series earlier in the season.
“It was nice to get off the mark in the competition,” Prince
said. “Obviously that first game didn’t go according to plan against the
Knights, so we needed to perform and we did. So, I'm pleased that we have that
win now behind us.”
Opponents the Titans suffered a surprise loss to the
Dolphins in their match, despite setting a target of 325, but Prince warned
they were not a side you could mess around with.
“The Titans have always had a good team, so we’ll respect
them,” he added. “But our intention is to focus on our own strengths and not
that of the opposition. So that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”
It has been an uncharacteristic start for the 20-over champions
and coach Mark Boucher says the wet weather has not helped.
“We haven’t had too much of a preparation with all the rain
up north here,” he said. “But that’s no excuse. I think we may have been a bit
rusty with white ball cricket, so hopefully we can now bounce back in this
second game.”
Despite the loss to the Dolphins, Boucher felt they still had more positives than negatives from that result.
“I thought we played good cricket for most of the game,” he
explained. “I think there were stages where we could have even closed the
result, some dropped catches and also really bad overs. Those are the big
moments we let ourselves down with, but overall there’s mainly positives to
take out of it.”
Looking ahead to the trip to Cape Town, the former South Africa wicketkeeper added: “It’s always nice to play at Newlands, but it will not be easy. They had a good win in midweek, so we’ll need to be on top of our game.”
Both sides will also be in action on Sunday when the Cobras travel to the Dolphins and the Titans entertain the bizhub Highveld Lions.