Durban – Dolphins coach Lance Klusener says there is no point dwelling on history and backed his side against the Titans in their domestic T20 Challenge semi-final in Durban on Wednesday.
The men from Pretoria, the most successful South African franchise in 20-over cricket, have won the competition three times during their 11-year history.
They are again confident of their chances of progressing into Sunday's final again the Cape Cobras, although Klusener, whose side have never won the tournament before, wants to change history.
“I think tomorrow's just a new game,” Klusener said on Tuesday.
“I don't think you can read too much into history and what's happened in the past.
“We've got a good young team and a team that's ready to win.”
Titans skipper Henry Davids felt past performances in crunch games made a massive difference, even though the Dolphins are probably the form team of the competition.
“The one thing in our favour is that the Dolphins haven't won a big game such as this one,” Davids said.
“That's good for us. We've always played good cricket in big games like these, so we'll go into the game pretty confident.”
The Dolphins, who finished second on the competition log behind the Cobras, should not be taken for granted, Davids said.
“They've been playing good cricket and if you look at the log where they finished, they should win, but we'll see tomorrow,” he said.
The Titans lost just once in their last four games to reach the semi-final, while the Dolphins suffered a surprise defeat in their last game to the Highveld Lions on Sunday.
“We would have like to finish top, but didn't do that and I guess second prize is a semi-final in your home ground,” Klusener said.
“We've pretty much drawn a line in the sand. Tomorrow's a new game as I said and we're looking forward to it.”
The Titans hoped to have Albie Morkel back, as he was expected to recover from the tonsillitis which kept him out of Sunday's win over the Knights.
They also drafted Marchant de Lange and CJ de Villiers into the squad to fill in for Morne Morkel, who is now on Proteas duty.
The Dolphins have no players in the Proteas test squad and are injury free. – Sapa