Johannesburg – Despite a convincing win in their opening game of the domestic T20 challenge, Lions coach Geoffrey Toyana says his charges need to drastically improve their fielding ahead of their match against the Warriors in East London on Friday.
The Lions romped to a six wicket win over defending champions, the Dolphins, but still had plenty room left for improvement according to the coach.
“We've not hit our straps yet, our fielding to be fair has been shocking,” said Toyana.
“Every game, it seems like we keep putting down chances. In every game you play you want to improve.”
Toyana expected the Buffalo Park pitch to be on the slow side, and a cautious approach may be needed.
“In East London, it's difficult. The pitch there sometimes is quite slow, so the key for us will be to adapt to the conditions as quickly as possible.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, lost their opening two games both by large margins Ä a 74 run defeat to the Knights on Sunday and by 54 runs to the Dolphins on Wednesday.
At Newlands on Friday, the Cobras will host the Dolphins and captain Justin Ontong of the Cape side said wickets at the top of the innings would be vital.
“Up front I would like us to take wickets because the Dolphins have match-winners at the top of their order with Cameron Delport and Morne van Wyk.
“We need to get those X-factor players out.”
Ontong took confidence from his side's opening win over the Titans, as their opponents had raced to 151 for no wicket, but ultimately fell to a 14 run defeat.
“We also just need to continue our death bowling, and build from our first game.
“We need to make sure our damage control towards the end of the innings is good, and also in the middle parts as well.”
Ahead of their match against the Knights in Centurion, Titans captain Henry Davids said his side needed to up their mental game after failing to get over the line against the Cobras.
“We're playing very good cricket, but we've shot ourselves in the foot in the last month,” said Davids.
“It's the small things we need to work on skills-wise like our mental capacity in certain situations.
“Obviously the guys were very upset with the loss against the Cobras. It was a game we should've won. But that's how it goes in the T20 format, the margins are small.” – Sapa