The Dolphins will have their eyes on the prize when they welcome the Warriors in their CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge at the Kingsmead Cricket Ground in Durban on Sunday (10.00 am start).
The start of the tournament presents the Dolphins with an opportunity to move past their recent disappointments in domestic competitions as they aim to finally jump the final hurdle and move past the doorstep of victory.
They first have to see off a strong Warriors side to kick start their season on a positive note.
The KwaZulu-Natal outfit has had a lot of success, especially in the T20 circuit and they can count themselves unlucky not to have a title to their name, after having reached three finals in the last five seasons.
The One-Day Challenge has been their much-fancied competition recently, despite last winning it in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons. They shared the latter with the Lions.
The Dolphins will be out to improve on their recent shortfalls, particularly their sixth-place finish in this competition, which saw them secure only one victory in a season in which their progress was dominated by poor weather.
Under the leadership of Marques Ackerman, they will not have it easy coming up against a Warriors side that just missed out on the top two positions by net run rate, with the North West Dragons sneaking in to make the final against Western Province.
Ackerman led the Dolphins to a successful CSA four-day series triumph in the 2020/21 season and speaking ahead of the match, the 28-year-old was excited about the prospect of leading his side in the upcoming season.
“It is a great feeling leading this side,” he said.
“I have been in this role before and its been a couple of years since I have been a leader of any of the teams, and it is a great feeling to be the skipper again.”
Both sides could not be separated last season as their clash was called off without a ball being bowled and with each having had a huge number of players making inroads within the Proteas set-up, hope will be for the weather not to play spoiler.
Elsewhere, the Rocks will be looking to start their tournament better than they did the last one when they welcome the Titans in Boland Park in Paarl also on Sunday (10am start).
The Rocks haven’t had the best outings recently in any format, and after having had the toss of the coin go their way in terms of hosting their opening match of the campaign, they will be hoping for more wins throughout this time around.
The Cape Winelands side were second from bottom at the conclusion of the last campaign, with only two victories from their seven matches.
And having already missed out on the T20 Challenge with the Lions successfully defending it and also taking charge of the four-day series, this could be the one tournament the Cape side can target to add to their trophy cabinet.
They come up against a Titans side that knows how to win and will be determined to also do well in this tournament, as they haven’t had a lot of success in recent seasons for a team that is so used to winning.