Big return home for Dolphins in 1-Day Cup

The Hollywoodbets Dolphins face the Momentum Multiply Titans in their first home match of the CSA 1-Day Cup at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium on Thursday hoping to kick-start their competition.

The Dolphins fell to a six-wicket loss against the Dafabet Warriors in Gqeberha on Friday in their tournament opener and they will be looking to put in a better performance in front of their home fans this week.

Unfortunately, the Dolphins will be without Hanu Viljoen and Khaya Zondo for this week's clash as both are out with injuries but they will welcome back Bryce Parsons to the squad.

Reflecting on the loss at St George's Park, Dolphins head coach Quinton Friend says that they were not far off despite the result.

"For us to get to 279 I thought was a good effort and we were confident that we could defend that," Friend said. "Maybe a few guys had an off day with the ball and Matthew Breetzke and Patrick Kruger batted brilliantly for them.

"We still took a lot of positives from that game and we want to implement those positives on Thursday."

It's the first match at home for the Dolphins in the 50 over competition and being back in familiar conditions will be an important factor for the Dolphins against the Titans.

"We're really looking forward to being back at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium this week and I hope that the fans can come out and support the boys.

"We have four home games in this tournament and we need to make them count so it's important that we hit the ground running on Thursday.

"The boys are looking forward to playing at home and they were hurting after that Warriors game so it's important for us to bounce back strong. I've got full belief that the team can do just that."

After some time to dissect the result in the Eastern Cape, Friend and his coaching staff have worked out where the team needs to improve.

"We felt we need to improve on our rotation of strike from a batting point of view. From a bowling perspective it's important that we react well to information and make sure we keep things as simple as possible.

"It's all about being consistent for long periods and that's something we need to improve on.

"Making sure we are executing our skills well is vital and we probably weren't all at the top of our game against the Warriors," Friend added.

The Titans started their campaign with a high-scoring victory over Goldrush Boland in their first match of the competition. Given their pedigree, Friend knows that they will be a strong side in this competition.

"It's never an easy game against the Titans and we have to make sure that we are on top of our game," Friend said.

Hollywoodbets Dolphins Squad

Andile Simelane, Tristan Luus, Prenelan Subrayen (c), Gomolemo Phiri, Nqobani Mokoena, Romashan Pillay, Slade van Staden, Imran Tahir, Ottniel Baartman, Bryce Parsons, Tshepang Dithole, Marques Ackerman, Eathan Bosch, Jon-Jon Smuts.