Sunfoil Dolphins coach, Lance Klusener, has called on his players to show greater commitment to their franchise and themselves as they look to arrest a two-game losing run in the RAM SLAM T20 when they visit the Warriors at Buffalo Park on Friday night.
Klusener was visibly angry after Wednesday’s game, which saw the Dolphins restrict the Titans to 136 for nine, only to be bowled out for a record low score of 70 and gift the Titans a bonus-point win.
With such a tight turnaround in between the games there has been little time to make major changes – and the Dolphins have travelled with the same squad – but Klusener feels that a mental shift is desperately required.
“It’s about letting the Dolphins down, and we need to apologise to our fans for that performance,” he reflected.
“I don’t think it’s a skill thing – it’s a mindset or a commitment thing. It’s about wanting to be your best which I sometimes have to question.”
While the Dolphins sit second on the table and still look good for a place in the play-offs as long as they can overcome their patch of poor form, the Warriors go into a string of three home games knowing that positive performances are non-negotiable.
With just two wins from the first half of the competition, home games against the Dolphins, the Titans and the Cobras represent an opportunity to move up the table, but support from their batsmen lower down the order will be necessary to do so.
The Warriors have been hugely reliant on Colin Ackermann and Colin Ingram thus far, with the pair notching up 379 runs while the rest of the squad have managed just 245.
Nevertheless, Ingram is not overly concerned.
“I think we expect the top four to take care of most of the overs,” he said. “That’s where you want your big scores to come from, and then for the guys coming in after that to chip in and really maximise their strike rate.
“We’ve been fortunate that the top order has done some good work through the season and long may it continue. These next three home games are massively important for us. They’ll give us either an easier run-in or a really tough one.”