Following a positive draw in their opening 4-Day Franchise Series clash, a confident Hollywoodbets Dolphins side head to Kimberley to take on the VKB Knights starting on Monday.
The men from Durban would have felt unlucky not to have come away from SuperSport Park with a victory as the Multiply Titans held on for a draw.
Coach Grant Morgan knows that there is still a lot of work to be done, but he was happy that his side were on the right side of the draw.
“If you take into consideration the mistakes that we made in Pretoria you can safely say that we were in the stronger position at the end of the four days,” Morgan mentioned.
“Although we didn’t beat the Titans on points, at the end of the day we were closer to getting all 10 points than they were and that’s positive.”
The Dolphins went into the clash with the Titans with an all-new opening pair of Jason Oakes and Grant Roelofsen, and the pair equipped themselves well against a strong bowing attack.
Heading into their showdown with the Knights, the Dolphins will be bolstered by the availability of a handful of their star players.
Dane Vilas returns to the squad as well as Sarel Erwee, which gives Morgan a number of tough decisions to make.
“When you have a system where you have to leave guys out that are growing shows that you are in a strong position.
“Even guys like Morné (Van Wyk) are selectable and even though he might be disappointed that he hasn’t been selected he is still involved, helping and working hard.
“That sort of attitude just proves that the systems are working and we are on the right path.”
All-rounder Senuran Muthusamy’s game has continued to improve as he plays more first class cricket and his impressive form culminated in a call up to the SA ‘A’ tour of India in the winter.
The left-hander is under no illusions as to how difficult the season is going to be but knows that the side are in the correct frame of mind.
“We are quietly confident that we can improve on what we did last season,” Muthusamy said. “We have earned the respect of the other teams around the country, and they know that playing us is always a tough fixture.
“There are a number of dangerous players in our squad and when we play well as a unit we will be on the right side of the result more often than not.”
Erwee and Vilas come into the side for Roelofsen and Oakes while Eathan Bosch also gets selected with Robbie Frylinck joining for Proteas squad for the upcoming T20 series against Zimbabwe.
Hollywoodbets Dolphins v VKB Knights team
Keshav Maharaj (c), Sarel Erwee, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Cody Chetty, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Vilas, Sibz Makhanya, Calvin Savage, Eathan Bosch, Okuhle Cele, Kerwin Mungroo, 12th Man: Lifa Ntanzi.
For more information visit www.dolphinscricket.co.za.
