CAPE TOWN - Dale Steyn is not giving up hope on the Cape Town Blitz reaching the Mzansi Super League playoffs.
The Blitz are in a "do-or-die" situation with two games remaining and any slip up will see last season's runners-up fall out of contention.
Steyn, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, though, believes the Blitz are playing decent cricket at the moment, but they just need to find a way of getting over the line, starting tonight against the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants at Newlands.
“I think we’ve played very good cricket to be honest,” Steyn said of their MSL 2.0 campaign thus far.
“The three games that we’ve lost, we could have easily won those, as a matter of fact we should have maybe won two out of the three.
“So I don’t think we’ve been playing badly. Our position where we are on the log shows a team that hasn’t been doing well, but I actually think we’ve been playing really good cricket.
“We’ve just been on the wrong side of it, just unlucky on one or two little moments in a contest that we’ve lost.”
Ashwell Prince, head coach of the Cape Town Blitz, believes the off-field problems blighting cricket in South Africa is not a distraction to the players. Photo: Ryan Wilkisky BackpagePix
With crowds having been sparse around the country, Steyn is delighted to be back playing at Newlands, where the #BlitzBrigade have continued to come out on their numbers.
“It’s awesome to play in Cape Town. It’s my favourite ground in the world. Honestly, it’s the best place.
“Our last game is on Friday, I’m just looking at the regular season for now, and I’m hoping for a similar crowd. We look forward to ending well.”
The Giants, meanwhile, have an easier task knowing that a defeat does not yet put them out of running for a play-off spot.
In fact, the Eastern Cape side still have the opportunity to host the MSL 2.0 final if the final two results go their way.
“I don’t think we’ve been feeling any pressure to be honest,” Giants captain Jon-Jon Smuts stated.
“I thought we played pretty well in Durban (when we lost on Saturday), I just think the Heat were better than us.
“Against the Spartans we had a bit of luck go our way and luckily we made use of it.”
The Giants have certainly made their own luck too with the record chase spurred on by a brilliant unbroken 86-run partnership by Ben Dunk (99) and Marco Marais (38) helped pull off a stunning win over the Spartans.
“We’ve had two record run chases at St George’s Park for the season already and we’ll take that,” Smuts said. “It was a magnificent chase, Ben and Marco’s partnership was unbelievable at the end, so it was a fine win for us.”
The Blitz will be hoping lightning doesn’t strike again at Newlands.
@ZaahierAdams
Cape Argus
Like us on Facebook
Follow
us on Twitter