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MI CAPE TOWN CAN’T DWELL ON PAST TOO MUCH – KIERON POLLARD

23 Jan 20242 mins

On Tuesday MI Cape Town host Durban’s Super Giants at Newlands (17:30) in the first match of the second half of group stage.

MICT currently find themselves in fourth place on the log standings, with two wins from their five matches, while DSG are one place better off having claimed three wins from their first five.

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The mood in both camps wouldn’t necessarily be positive, with both coming off derby defeats. Having given up their previous perfect record against Paarl Royals, MICT captain Kieron Pollard was eager to not get too sombre on Sunday – especially with short turnaround time to today’s mid-table clash.

“We have 48 hours, before playing at our home ground. We were demolished today but [Paarl Royals] played better than us in all three departments and we just need to look at ourselves at the end of it… these things happen in cricket and in a tournament.

The 36-year-old Trinidadian was keen to keep perspective, after MICT collapsed to 103 all out in their chase of Royals’ 160 – a target he said “we’d take any day”.

“In this format, in every competition, from a batting perspective, each team has one of these collapses so hopefully this is the only one for us going forward. Having said that, the guys have been fantastic posting 200 and 160-plus and it’s one of these days when we didn’t strike. We just have to get up and move on – that’s what you have to do in professional sport. you can’t dwell too much and look too deep or try to divulge and over-analyse stuff and get guys in a shell… that’s not the way to go.”

There’s a similar sentiment in the Durban’s Super Giants camp, after they suffered a second successive defeat on Saturday, at home against Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

“We were bossing the match for most of it, up until we had 50 runs to go and then we just let it go at the end there. I think we read [the pitch] pretty spot on it was just a lack of execution towards the end and the Sunrisers capitalised on that.”

One standout performer for DSG in that loss against Sunrisers was Wiaan Mulder, showing that there’s more to DSG’s middle-order than talisman Heinrich Klaasen.

“It’s brilliant to see [Mulder] take the opportunity that he had. We always knew he had something special in him and I’m just glad he got the rewards for the hard work he’s being putting in.”

FULL SQUADS FOR NEWLANDS

MI Cape Town: Kieron Pollard (captain), Tom Banton, Chris Benjamin, Dewald Brevis, Sam Curran, Connor Esterhuizen, Beuran Hendricks, Duan Jansen, Thomas Kaber, George Linde, Liam Livingstone, Delano Potgieter, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Grant Roelofsen, Olly Stone, Nuwan Thushara, Rassie van der Dussen, Nealan van Heerden.

Durban's Super Giants: Keshav Maharaj (captain), Noor Ahmad, Matthew Breetzke, Junior Dala, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Heinrich Klaasen, Kyle Mayers, Wiaan Mulder, Naveen-ul-Haq Murid, Bryce Parsons, Keemo Paul, Nicholas Pooran, Dwaine Pretorius, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jon-Jon Smuts, Jason Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Prenelan Subrayen, Reece Topley.