Johannesburg – 5 March 2025
The DP World Lions men’s captain Bjorn Fortuin is adamant to take the win on Wednesday when they face Boland in their penultimate round-robin match of the CSA One-Day Cup at the DP World Wanderers Stadium.
Defeat is not an option if #ThePrideOfJozi want to continue challenging for the 50-over playoffs. After opening their CSA One-Day Cup campaign with impressive wins over Western Province and the Titans, Fortuin’s team have subsequently lost to the North-West Dragons and the Free State Knights at home as well as to the Dolphins in Durban.
“It’s a weird one for our team and it’s been a while since we lost three in a row, especially in white-ball cricket,” Fortuin says. “So we’ve had some reflection and some discussions. We’ve got a blueprint that we know works, especially at home. So now it’s just a matter of taking responsibility for the execution of that.”
“Obviously we’re missing a few players, but in the past, players have stepped up into those gaps. We’ve been lacking with the bat especially. Up front we’ve been losing wickets in the powerplay and also not starting well with the ball.
“But no-one feels out of form. Five of our batsmen have been past fifty and we’ve scored eight half-centuries in the competition so far. But everybody is getting fifties and sixties, which gets you into the game and then we get out. Reeza Hendricks’ 94 against the Titans at Centurion is the closest we’ve got to a hundred, so no-one is putting in a big score.
“It stems from the problems at the top, we’re always one or two down early and then the batsmen coming in have to get us back into the game, they can’t just play naturally. Hopefully we have a good platform against Boland,” Fortuin says.
Our DP World Lions are in seventh position on the log, although just four points (one win) away from the top three playoff spots. But given that all eight teams will be in action on Wednesday and there are also another four games on Sunday, there are so many permutations when it comes to the final standings. The Lions need two bonus point wins to be confident of finishing in the top three and making the Qualifier before the final.
Playing at the DP World Wanderers Stadium should also be an advantage for #ThePrideOfJozi. Although Boland are top of the log and have won four of their five matches, they have only played once on the Highveld and it did not go well for them.
Boland could only manage 228 for nine in their 50 overs against the Knights in Bloemfontein and were beaten by 21 runs.
“Boland have obviously done well at home and I had a taste of that recipe recently when I played for Paarl Royals in the SA20. But going away to play at different grounds and in different conditions can affect you because you may need to make personnel changes.
“But they are still a good team, even if their matches are low-scoring. The onus is going to be on us to continue that and put pressure on their batsmen. They also rely heavily on spin bowling, so when we bat, we’ll need to transfer pressure on to their seamers.
“Lately there have been superb batting decks at the DP World Wanderers. We were quite worried about how good it would be for batting against the Dragons because we’d never seen anything like it before, but even then it played beautifully.
“Against the Knights, we thought it would be a bit tacky after being under the covers and with the overhead conditions, but it played unbelievably well. We just didn’t adjust and capitalise up front against the new ball.
“Hopefully we do that against Boland because we know we can still qualify. We won’t consciously chase a bonus point, but we know it will make it much easier to qualify,” Fortuin says.