Cape Town — Two days after a magnificent victory in Bloemfontein, Western Province must pitch up at Newlands on Friday seeking to maintain their new-found winning momentum against the North West Dragons.
And then two days later they must go again against arch-rivals the Titans at the same venue on Sunday.
At any other time this would be a schedule from hell. But when the tide is with you, like it is flowing with Province, and in particular Tony de Zorzi at the moment, then playing every single day would be a treat.
De Zorzi has been in blazing form over the past month, with his hot-streak reaching the mercury levels currently experienced in Cape Town. The stylish left-hander has transferred his red-ball prowess to the limited-overs arena with his 133 off just 118 balls powering WP to their second straight win in the One-Day Cup at the Mangaung Oval.
His confidence at the crease has filtered through to the rest of the WP team, with opening partner Jonathan Bird also striking consecutive half-centuries since his return from injury.
“You can’t take runs, or form, for granted because it’s not easy to score runs. I’m just enjoying it. And trying my best to keep my feet on the ground,” De Zorzi said.
“I am just trying to help my team win because I feel like we have a really good team and can compete for honours and trophies in the next two competitions. Being a contributing factor in that drive is what motivates me and I’m just trying my best to enjoy my cricket and keep having fun.”
The challenge facing WP on Friday is certainly much tougher than what they experienced in Bloemfontein when they rattled up a record 366/7 before dismissing the Knights for 166 in 26.5 overs.
The Dragons are also unbeaten after two matches, and collected a bonus point in of the victories, to sit just behind Province on net run-rate.
The Dragons snuck home against the Warriors in a high-scoring game, before trouncing the Knights
The Potchefstroom-based team have plenty of batting power that could put WP under pressure with Lesego Senokwane, Wesley Marshall, veteran Heino Kuhn, Senuran Muthasamy and Delano Potgieter all capable of putting together an innings of substance.
Senokwane, in particular, has been in good touch with scores of 79 and 76.
“The Dragons are playing really good cricket at the moment. We are coming up against a side that’s in good form, as are we, and I think it will be a really good game to watch,” De Zorzi said.
“And hopefully we can play the brand of cricket that we like to play for longer than them and get over the line.”
WP SQUAD FOR NEWLANDS
Aviwe Mgijima, Beuran Hendricks, Daniel Smith (w/k), Gavin Kaplan, George Linde, Jonathan Bird, Junaid Dawood, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nandre Burger, Tony De Zorzi, Tshepo Moreki, Wayne Parnell (c), Yaseen Vallie
IOL Sport