Dolphins spoilt for choice in Potch

The start of the Momentum One-Day Cup appears to have shown how much depth the defending champions, the Dolphins, have in their squad.

The competition began in a bio-bubble environment in Potchefstroom at the weekend where the Durban-based franchise enjoyed a great start to their mission to keep the title in the coastal city.

The Dolphins got their tournament on the road with a bonus-point win over the Titans on Saturday and completed the weekend with another good victory over the Knights on Sunday.

The Imraan Khan-coached Dolphins are at the summit of Group A with nine points ahead of their third outing against the Titans on Thursday at Senwes Park at 10 am.

The Dolphins’ good start makes light of the fact that they are missing key players to their starting team, such as opener Sarel Erwee, Keagan Petersen and skipper Keshav Maharaj as they are all in the Proteas Test squad which will tour Pakistan.

The side is without last season’s regular opener Vaughn van Jaarsveld who retired with immediate effect last month to take a coaching role at Northwood High School.

Stand-in skipper Prenelan Subrayen is thrilled to have led the team to a great start and said their team was well balanced which leaves the technical team spoilt for choice despite missing a few stars.

“In terms of the game, we started a little bit in a way that we didn’t want to, but I thought that the guys recovered well and showed that we have a lot of depth in the team,” said Subrayen.

“I think we started off very well in terms of the results against the Titans which gave us a lot of momentum going into the campaign and followed up with a nice win against the Knights.

“We missed the bonus points by five runs unfortunately, that just would have been a cherry on the top,” said Subrayen.

The 27-year-old all-rounder said preparing for the tournament was a challenge for the Durbanites because of the Covid-19 pandemic but making peace with a lot of stuff was really key for them.

“Preparations leading up to Potchefstroom and the campaign were a bit disturbed and frantic, I could say because of the Covid-19 protocols, the bubble, and things that needed to be followed. There were a lot of disruptions leading to the campaign,” said the Tongaat-born player.

“That is one thing that the team has made peace with quite early, so it wasn’t really hard for us to get into the field.”

The Dolphins have two matches remaining in the round-robin and a top-two finish will get them to the semi-finals where they will face one of the top two teams from Group B.

Group B is made up of the Lions, Cobras and Warriors and their round-robin fixtures will start on Friday, January 22.