The Warriors will have another crack at major tournament success when they travel to the Titans in the Momentum One Day Cup final to be played at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday afternoon.
The Knights lost to the Titans by six runs in a tightly-contested final of the CSA T20 Challenge last December and they have another chance of lifting a trophy after beating the Knights by 18 runs in the Momentum One Day Cup play-off in Bloemfontein on Monday night.
The Warriors won the toss and elected to bat against the Knights and posted a challenging score of 249/7 with batsmen Colin Ingram‚ who was named the man-of-the-match‚ and Gihahn Cloete scoring half centuries.
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The Knights fell short of the 250 target that was set for them as they could only reach 231 in their 50 overs‚ largely due to the excellent bowling of Andrew Birch and Anrich Norje who claimed two wickets each.
The highest scorers for the Knights were Keegan Petersen‚ who scored a determined 83 off 117 balls‚ Proteas ODI star David Miller‚ who managed 52 off 66 balls‚ and Tumelo Bodibe‚ who contributed 40 runs.
Reflecting on the hardfought victory that put them in the final‚ Warriors captain Jon-Jon Smuts said removing Miller‚ who was beginning to find his rhythm with the bat‚ was the turning point for them.
“In play-off games you are never quite sure what to expect because anything can happen at any time‚” he said.
- Knights and Warriors vie for Momentum ODI Cup finalA place in the final against the Titans at SuperSport Park is up for grabs when the Knights host the Warriors in their Momentum One Day Cup qualifier at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Sunday morning.
“David Miller was always going to be a massive wicket for us and we managed to remove him at a crucial stage and that swayed the game in our favour. We executed our skills at the end very well to be able to cross the line.”
Ingram added that the Warriors managed to win the match because they fought as a team and never gave up even when the Knights had the upper hand with Miller and Petersen looking good on the crease.
“We came here for a fight‚ it shows the amount of work that we have been putting together behind the scenes of paying off over the past few years‚” Ingram said.
“My mental makeup was to come out and scrap as much as possible. I had to fight hard and look for opportunities and fortunately we managed to pull it off.”
- Vandiar helps Titans secure home Momentum ODI Cup finalTitans will host the Momentum One Day Cup final next Friday in front of their own supporters after they crushed woeful Cobras by six wickets with 111 balls to spare at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Thursday night.
Losing captain Pite van Biljon was gracious in defeat and vowed that they have learned their lesson and will come back stronger and wiser next year.
“It has been a great season for us‚ we haven’t won a trophy in about ten years but earlier in the season we won the Sunfoil Series‚” he said.
“We finished in top three of this competition‚ we have a young squad with lots of potential and we are looking forward to next season where we will build on to what we have achieved this season.”
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport
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