Cape Town Blitz coach Ashwell Prince and captain Quinton de Kock have their work cut out for them.
The Cape Town-based Mzansi Super League team was knocked off the top of the standings on Wednesday night by Nelson Mandela Bay Giants in Port Elizabeth.
But that is not the big concern for the team’s leaders.
With Faf du Plessis and his Paarl Rocks coming to Newlands for what is a mouthwatering derby on Sunday, Blitz will have to get rid of some mental weakness.
Twice they had their foot on the throats of the Giants on Wednesday and on both occasions they failed to finish them off.
TROUBLE: CT Blitz coach Ashwell Prince. Picture: BackpagePix.
After winning the toss and batting first, Blitz enjoyed the best start possible, with Janneman Malan (31) and De Kock (39) taking them to 72 without loss inside the first seven overs.
Batting at more than 11 runs per over at the time, they were set up for a big score.
But apart from Liam Livingstone’s 39, the rest of their batsmen failed to come to the party as they eventually ended on 186/9.
Then defending that total, Blitz had the Giants on 3/2 with Anrich Nortje and Dale Steyn removing dangerous openers Jason Roy and Matthew Breetzke respectively.
They again failed to drive home the dagger, as Jon-Jon Smuts (73), Marco Morris (40 off 20 balls) and Chris Morris (19 off 9 balls) finished off a team that should have killed them off.
LICKING HIS LIPS: Rocks' Faf de Plessis. Picture: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix.
Back home at Newlands on Sunday, they face opposition that have had the better of them before and will have the mental edge going into the encounter.
In their last meeting, Rocks bowled out Blitz for just 84 runs as they beat their neighbours by 86 runs.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlitzBrigade?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlitzBrigade #MSLT20 #CTBlitz⚡️ #DalaWhatYouMust pic.twitter.com/h2SbiuoWdp
— Cape Town Blitz (@CT_Blitz)
Rocks captain Faf du Plessis has already warned their Cape pals ahead of the game, saying: “I find that in T20 cricket especially, once you get into a winning streak or a losing streak for that matter, you can either go up or you can go down.”