He wants to credit the Buildnat Cape Cobras’ management team and the players for putting in a conscious effort to focus on what needs to be done in getting the team to the semi-final play-off, said Kieron Pollard, experienced skipper of the Cobras.
Pollard acknowledged that the Warriors, their next opponents on Friday at 18:00, are playing “fantastic cricket in chasing a target of beyond 200 against the Dolphins. They will be high on confidence,” he said.
Pollard’s team, the Buildnat Cape Cobras, have also won two successive matches comprehensively. Their victory against the VKB Knights was a bonus-point affair.
“What is important is to start from zero, and not from the high of the previous game. You have to focus on doing things right, and the rest will take care of itself.
“It has been an advantage that Richard Levi and Wayne Parnell were off to good starts. The players following them, could just knock the ball around and take care of the bad deliveries,” he said.
What Pollard did not say, is that JP Duminy, Dane Vilas and the Caribbean world-class all-rounder possess so much experience that they can pick up in a flash when a delivery is misdirected and deserve corporal (boundary) treatment.
Especially Pollard can make that heavy bat look like a tooth pick as he clears the boundary ropes from extra cover to deep midwicket.
The Australians are past and present masters of the art of sledging. Steve Waugh spoke about sledging and its goal as mental disintegration.
Asked about the use of the odd word to unnerve the opponents, Pollard said: “I’m one of them (the cricketers that use sledging). If somebody has an ego, it could be a good ploy. But some people are only motivated by it.
“Ultimately, it is about the bat and the ball and who wins the contest,” he added.
Pollard is arguably the most experienced T20 player currently plying his trade in South Africa.
He is knowledgeable enough about the Warriors to know where the cracks could be.
Pollard dismissed criticism about the death bowling. He said the way Dane Paterson and Parnell bowled at PPC Newlands against the VKB Knights, spoke volumes.
The Cobras won that match by eight wickets, and if they can knock the Warriors off their pedestal at 18:00 on Friday, expect thousands of spectators on Sunday at Boland Park when the Cobras clash with the bizhub Highveld Lions. That match starts at 14h30.