THE two struggling teams, the Warriors and Sunfoil Dolphins, go head-to-head at Buffalo Park in East London when the Sunfoil Series resumes this Thursday.
The hosts have endured a miserable four-day season to date, losing four out of their five games – the other being a complete washout against the same opponents in Pietermaritzburg.
But there is hope for them, according to coach, Malibongwe Maketa.
“We can only get better from here,” he said. “We are bottom of the table and the only way for us is up. It’s what we’ll be trying to do over the next month or so.”
Despite their woes in four-day cricket, the Warriors have had better joy in the limited-overs game. They reached the Qualifier in the recently concluded Momentum One-Day Cup and narrowly missed out on the RAM SLAM T20 Challenge play-offs earlier in the campaign.
“There were some encouraging signs in the way we played one-day cricket,” Maketa added. “Going forward now to four-day cricket, it’s all about really trying to improve our standing on the log. So we’ve been looking at how we want to go about playing the four-day game.
“The biggest let-down so far has been our first innings totals and that has been our Achilles’ heel in terms of competing in this competition. That’s the big area where we’re targeting an improvement.”
Maketa also confirmed they “will be giving a few youngsters an opportunity” as they also build towards the future.
The Dolphins have had one significant change between the last game and this one – Lance Klusener is no longer around.
The former Proteas star lost his position as coach and has been replaced in the interim by Yashin Ebrahim and Roger Telemachus.
Regular skipper Morne van Wyk is also back from injury for the fourth-placed visitors.
“We’ll look to hit the ground running and play some positive cricket,” Ebrahim said. “We’ve got a well-balanced squad and will go there to try and win.
“But as far as we’re concerned it won’t be an easy game, despite the Warriors’ position on the table. They have built up some momentum with their recent performances in 50-over cricket, so we’re expecting a tight affair.”
