After winning their opening two games in the Momentum One-Day Cup, Warriors captain Colin Ingram believes that his side can get even better as they begin to see the rewards of their rebuilding process.

The Warriors have not lifted a trophy since doing the limited-overs double in the 2009/10 season, but hopes of a revival in the Eastern Cape would swell if they were to beat the Knights at the Mangaung Oval on Friday to maintain their perfect start to the new campaign.

‘Over the last two years, just amongst the squad we’ve said that we want to empower ourselves to win any game, whether it be with a white ball or a red ball, and that’s what we’re working towards,’ Ingram said.

‘At the back end of last season we did pretty well in the 50-over competition so we’ve used that same format and added one or two players and it seems to be going nicely. The key is to maintain that and be more consistent going forward.’

Yaseen Vallie and Gihahn Cloete, the Warriors’ two main recruits over the winter, both contributed runs at the top of the order on Wednesday to set up a 42-run victory over the Dolphins, leaving Ingram buoyant about the potential within his side.

‘It wasn’t a polished performance, which is exciting because it means there is still room for improvement,’ he said. ‘There are a few things we need to keep working on.’

The Knights, by contrast, made a poor start to the season as they were thumped by the Dolphins in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday, leaving coach, Sarel Cilliers, to hope that it was merely an early-season aberration.

‘I don’t think there were too many positives for us in that game,’ admitted Cilliers. ‘We’ve spoken about the things we need to rectify, and hopefully it’s one of those things where we start the season off a bit jittery but get it behind us and start playing proper cricket.’

The Knights have made one change to their squad, with Gerhardt Abrahams returning to Northern Cape to try and regain some form, and Michael Erlank brought in as a replacement.