DP World Lions to host Warriors and Dolphins

The CSA T20 Challenge is well under way and defending champions, the DP World Lions men’s team will be focusing on bouncing back strongly as they will be hosting two matches over the weekend.

The Dafabet Warriors on Friday and the Hollywoodbets Dolphins on Sunday will be the visitors to the DP World Wanderers Stadium and #ThePrideOfJozi captain Mitchell van Buuren is expecting a much better performance than they put up against the Titans in their season-opener last weekend.

“We didn’t really want to be playing catch-up cricket, but it was a slow start. We are always looking to learn though and we had some younger talent playing. There are always high expectations playing for the DP World Lions and we now need to really hit the ground running this weekend,” Van Buuren said.

“It was a not-so-great start, but now we are looking to go back-to-back this weekend. We’ll be bringing much of the same approach as last season, we’re looking to play on the front foot. We have super-high standards at the DP World Lions, and we’ll be looking to uphold those this weekend.”

CAPTAINCY PEDIGREE

Van Buuren is leading the DP World Lions for the first time, but he is a 26-year-old who has a long captaincy pedigree.

“I’ve been a captain my whole life – from the King Edward First XI to the SA U19 and SA Emerging teams. So being captain is nothing new for me, but it is a dream come true to lead the DP World Lions, the team I’ve always wanted to play for. I’m going to try and lead by example, by my actions. Things like training the right behaviours, winning games with the bat is most important and making the best decisions I can in the field. Playing in the Betway SA20 has helped immensely because I was exposed to some of the best T20 players in the country and in the world. I was fortunate to be at the Paarl Royals, where I got to play with Jos Buttler and David Miller, and I had a few conversations about leadership with them.”

Even amid the loss to the Momentum Multiply Titans, there were some positives that the DP World Lions will look to build on. Left-arm paceman Kwena Maphaka continued to show what an incredible talent he is, his figures of two for 31 in four overs being exceptional in a total of 258 for six.

And Evan Jones batted with tremendous freedom late in the innings to blast a wonderful 83 runs off just 48 balls.

Friday’s match against the Warriors, who beat the Dolphins by six wickets in their opening match, starts at 6pm, while Sunday’s meeting with the KwaZulu-Natalians starts at 2pm.