Johannesburg - Following their massive loss to the Highveld Lions in their One-Day Cup season opener last week, Titans captain Martin van Jaarsveld said some harsh words were spoken to the team.
“You can go one of two ways. Either you take it in your stride or you get over-analytical. I think we did a bit of both,” Van Jaarsveld said at a training session in Pretoria on Tuesday.
“The loss was a massive blow for us and some hard words were spoken.”
The Titans were bowled out for 60, losing to the Lions by 269 runs - the joint-third biggest victory margin in limited overs cricket in South Africa.
“We’ve moved on and worked really hard over the last few days and the spirit in the team is great,” he said as they readied to play the Cape Cobras at Willowmoore Park on Wednesday.
Having generated some momentum from the Champions League Twenty20, Van Jaarsveld said they would look at the positives instead of focusing on the Lions “blip”.
Van Jaarsveld felt several players lacked playing time which could have affected Friday’s performance against the Johannesburg franchise.
“Someone like a Paul Harris hadn’t played for some time and it was Rowan Richards' first real game time he’d had for a while,” Van Jaarsveld said.
“It’s quite a tough ask for someone who has been part of the squad but had no game time, to actually come in and perform. Now we’ve had that one game and hopefully things will go better tomorrow.”
The experienced Titans' batsman cited the Cobras batting as a strong point which his side would have to deal with on Wednesday.
“Their batting is a concern for us because they are a real good batting unit, but hopefully Wednesday night we can manage to get the ball in the right areas and get some early wickets,” he said.
In Wednesday’s other match, the Lions travel to Port Elizabeth to play the Warriors. The Warriors were beaten by 91 runs by the Knights in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
The Lions would want to continue where they left off against the Titans.
Captain and opening batsman Stephen Cook scored a fine 125 and Hardus Viljoen took six wickets for 19 runs.
Sapa