There was enough impetus built up towards the back end of last season by the Warriors team to create the belief at the Eastern Cape franchise that they may be on the cusp of something special this summer.
A coaching change last December – which saw Malibongwe Maketa replace Piet Botha – appeared to reignite the Warriors dressing-room as they made a concerted though ultimately futile push for a spot in the Momentum One-Day Cup play-offs.
The team that pipped them to the post, is the same group they will face today in the opening match of the 2015/16 One-Day Cup, the Titans.
Last season the Warriors won four of their last five matches, but fell short on account of net run-rate and narrowly missed the play-offs. The Titans took that piece of good fortune and turned it into a title-winning surge.
However, while glum at their failure last time, this season the Warriors want to utilise the belief they created with that good run last summer to spur them onto a good start this season.
In that regard theirs and the Titans’ goals are the same – to begin the competition on a positive note and lessen the stress in the second half of the tournament.
“We won four out of the last five games at the back end of the competition last season and most of the players who did that are back this season,” said skipper Colin Ingram.
Of course there are no guarantees that what took place eight months ago can simply be replicated over the next few weeks, but the Warriors’ late surge last summer was the result of deep introspection that occurred following the change in coaches.
That spirit remains and according to Ingram has been enhanced through the off-season.
“We had a fresh spirit – we changed the coach – and with that we took a good hard look at ourselves and where we’d been in the last couple of years.
It was a good time to reflect on where we’d been and to restart the team culture side of things. We were competitive in all formats in the second half of last season – hopefully we can build on that,” said Ingram.
Part of that building process will include relieving Ingram of the burden of being the Warriors’ sole run getter.
At times last season it felt like everything was being lumped on his shoulders – in the opening match of last season’s competition he even donned the wicketkeeping gloves, in addition to being skipper and top order batsman.
JJ Smuts and Michael Price – Ingram’s chief lieutenants – return, aware that they need to carry some of the slack in the run-scoring department.
The Warriors have also invested in a couple of younger players who have some franchise experience to further supplement their batting.
Gihahn Cloete has trekked to the Eastern Cape from Kimberley, Yaseen Vallie has been contracted following his loan spell last season and Clyde Fortuin, one of the stars of the Under-19s World Cup success last year, has also moved from Cape Town.
“The long term goal is to build a very competitive squad. We’ve got three guys in and building that depth can only be good for us. It will be great to see as many of us as possible contribute to us winning games.”
The Warriors’ match against the Titans opens the weekend which sees all six franchises featured as the season formally gets underway.
Tomorrow the Lions play the Cape Cobras at the Wanderers (2pm) and Sunday the Dolphins host the Knights in Pietermaritzburg (10am).