For two teams who have had relatively limited success as franchises, the heat will be on when the Warriors and the Dolphins clash in the MTN40 final in East London on Friday.
Both teams defied the tags of underdogs in last weekend’s semifinals as the Warriors defeated the Cape Cobras in Paarl and the Dolphins repeated their round-robin win over logleaders Titans when they outplayed them in Centurion.
But now the pressure will move up a notch as the Dolphins target their first franchise title since sharing the Supersport Series trophy with the Titans in 2005/06 — they also shared that title with the Eagles in 2004/05 — and the Warriors aim for their first-ever trophy.
In fact, the last time a trophy ended up in the Eastern Cape (EP and Border) was way back in 1991/92 when Eastern Province won the four-day Castle Cup trophy and the B&H Night Series.
The Warriors have been in four finals in the franchise era and lost them all, but coach Russell Domingo said that was not an issue for the squad.
“We’ve played some good cricket over the last three or four weeks and we know we have a quality side, and if we play to our potential tomorrow, we can win this match,” Domingo said.
“The fact that we haven’t won a title before is not an issue for us as we have quite a few guys who have played in these pressure-type matches and I am sure they will have a big effect on the other players who haven’t won [a title].”
On recent form, the Warriors, who have a side sprinkled with national players, have the edge, having had the better of the Dolphins on four occasions this summer.
But as was demonstrated last weekend, form and history generally go out the window on these sorts of occasions and the Warriors will know that nothing less than a supreme, mistake-free effort will end their trophy drought.
Imraan Khan’s Dolphins seem to be peaking at just the right time and players like Hashim and Ahmed Amla, Loots Bosman, Dale Benkenstein and Johann Louw will bring plenty of experience to their cause.
Successive wins over the Titans will have them in the right frame of mind for this pressure-filled fixture.
The Dolphins failed against the Warriors in their league fixture at the same venue, but they will probably have learnt a lot from that outing.
Leftarm seamer Yusuf Abdullah is still out with an injury, but the Dolphins have added fast bowler Quinton Friend to the squad, while leftarm spinners Keshav Maharaj and Kyle Nipper make up the 15-man squad.
The Warriors have named an unchanged squad and they will be hoping there’s no interference by the weather on Friday. If the match does go to a reserve day (Saturday), the Warriors would have to name a new team, with Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Johan Botha, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell all due to join the national squad in Johannesburg on Saturday for the tour of India. The Dolphins would lose only Hashim Amla. — Sapa