Pretoria Capitals coach Graham Ford has called on his team to do “something very special” ahead of Thursday’s SA20 match against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Centurion.
Last season’s runners-up have endured a difficult campaign with just one victory in five attempts.
They also slumped to a record low earlier in the week when the Sunrisers dismissed the Capitals for just 52 at St George’s Park.
But Ford has lost not faith in his players and believes they possess the temperament and character to turn their season around.
“Our situation, you can’t shy away from it, it’s not a great one. But the one thing that we have with the group of characters in the dressing room, they will take it on,” Ford said.
“We have an incredible opportunity to do something very special, winning four of our last five games and going on to win the competition. If we do that, as a group, we will be talked about for many years to come.
“The fortunate thing is that there are a lot of fine gentlemen in that group who have been through a lot of good times as well as tough times. So there are a lot of good messages that come from a lot of experienced people within the group.
“Confidence is an important thing in cricket and realistically we are not as confident as we should be right now. But there is a belief in the group that if we start to hit out straps we can beat anybody in the competition.
“There is a great opportunity and hopefully it can happen. We have some superb players in our lineup. We haven’t quite fired to our potential, but if we do, then special things can happen.”
Meanwhile, the Sunrisers are building up that late tournament momentum once again that led them to the inaugural title last season.
They have won three consecutive matches and the players are full of confidence ahead of the Capitals clash.
“It was a nice win for us … great for the change room and it’s important because of the quick turnaround,” said their captain Aiden Markram before acknowledging that Thursday will be a different occasion.
“Playing in Pretoria is going to pose different challenges to the bowling unit which we’ll address but great for the change room to have won three on the bounce.”
Pretoria Capitals squad: Wayne Parnell (c), Matthew Boast, Corbin Bosch, Eathan Bosch, Shane Dadswell, Theunis de Bruyn, Daryn Dupavillon, Colin Ingram, Will Jacks, Senuran Muthusamy, Jimmy Neesham, Migael Pretorius, Adil Rashid, Rilee Rossouw, Phil Salt, Paul Stirling, Tiaan van Vuuren, Kyle Verreynne, Hardus Viljoen.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape squad: Aiden Markram (c), Tom Abell, Ottniel Baartman, Temba Bavuma, Liam Dawson, Sarel Erwee, Aya Gqamane, Simon Harmer, Jordan Hermann, Marco Jansen, Patrick Kruger, Dawid Malan, Farid Malik, Adam Rossington, Caleb Seleka, Andile Simelane, Tristan Stubbs, Beyers Swanepoel, Daniel Worrall.
Photo: Ron Gaunt/Sportzpics
