Marquee player Dawid Malan all but excused the Cape Town Blitz’s defeat to the Paarl Rocks at Newlands on Monday.

Malan’s brisk 85 from 54 deliveries was not enough to prevent a seven-wicket loss in a key Mzansi Super League warm-up fixture.

‘Before the warm-up matches, we spoke about the results not really being important as we need to peak by Friday. If we are totally honest, what we did in the first warm-up match wasn’t good enough,’ said Malan.

‘We were about 20-30 runs short and with the ball we probably bowled a few loose balls but if you take that away, hopefully, we can learn from that and try to improve so that by the time Friday comes, we can peak and hopefully we are all playing really well and can put in a good performance.’

The England batsman, who has played 15 Tests and five T20Is, eventually fell to seamer Dane Paterson. Paterson completed telling figures of 5-26.

‘These warm-up games are about the guys finding their feet, finding the fact that they are able to make mistakes and they can still rectify it, as long as the guys are learning and realise that what happens in these games doesn’t really affect things too much,’ added Malan.

The Blitz will meet the Tshwane Spartans in their tournament opener in Cape Town on Friday.

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