All-rounder Evan Jones believes the quality in the Central Gauteng Lions’ squad will make them difficult to beat in the remainder of this season’s T20 Challenge. KHUNULOGO MPOLOKENG reports.
The Lions will visit the Free State Knights on Wednesday, looking for a hat-trick of wins after defeating the EP Warriors and the KZN Dolphins in their last two games.
They are now third on the log after their first three matches, with their next opponents in fifth position following their first win of the campaign against the Warriors on Sunday.
After helping the Lions beat the Dolphins by nine runs at the Wanderers, Jones shared his prediction for their first away fixture.
“It’s an interesting team, they’re fighters. We haven’t travelled there [Bloemfontein] in quite a while, so I think it’s going to be an interesting game – one that we’ll need to be in from ball one.
“We have a young but experienced team; if we focus on hitting our straps, on doing the basics well, I’d like to think there aren’t a lot of teams that can keep up with us.”
Jones performed well with bat and ball against the Dolphins, coming in at No 7 and rushing to 29* during a 42-run sixth-wicket partnership with Delano Potgieter.
That helped the Lions post a total of 156-5, before he took the key wicket of Khaya Zondo in the game’s final over, with the visitors needing 11 runs off the last four balls at that point.
“I reckon if they needed five or six or 20, I still would have been nervous [about bowling the final over],” Jones said. “They worked hard, batting very well. You couldn’t miss [your line and lengths] because they would have punished you. But because the wicket was playing slow, I took the pace off and bowled hard into the wicket, hoping to get lucky.
“My being right-handed, Lano being left-handed, we’re both big hitters at the end of the innings, and it’s our responsibility to finish off well. It’s not always easy, but we take a win today,” Jones said about his key partnership with Potgieter.
The Lions’ back-to-back wins followed their 117-run loss to the Northerns Titans in their season-opener. Jones said it was important to keep believing that they could turn things around even after a disappointing start.
“Not having all our internationals made us a young and exciting team, so I think it was always just about finding our feet. That loss to the Titans hurt, but having had a good pre-season, we could turn things around quickly with the young guys.
“The last two games have been very good, so I reckon we need to keep our heads down and let’s see where we end up.”
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