As we switch focus to white-ball cricket for the first time in franchise cricket this season, Warriors coach, Robin Peterson, has made it clear that he wants his players to play positive cricket and take responsibility for their performances, writes Ongama Gcwabe.

The Momentum One-Day Cup gets underway tomorrow with the match between the Titans and the Lions at Centurion, Pretoria.

The Eastern Cape franchise, Warriors, start the competition against the Cobras in Oudtshoorn on the second of February.

“These guys have all played here, so I’m going to rely a lot on their knowledge,” said Peterson.

“Statistically what we’ve looked at over the last while, it seems to be a slow pitch, spin bowlers seem to come into it quite a bit.

“We’ll probably have to prepare accordingly with both bat and ball, these guys have played a lot of cricket there so they know what to expect.”

The Warriors will be without the services of some of their key players in captain Jon-Jon Smuts, the experienced Sisanda Magala and the young Lutho Sipamla, who are all on national duty.

But Peterson has called on the likes of Dyllan Matthews, Sithembila Langa and Lesiba Ngoepe to do the stepping up and use the opportunity they get.

“We lost quite a few resources to the national team now which has been tough, but that just gives guys opportunities,” Peterson added.

“I think it gives guys an opportunity, (guys) that have wanted the opportunity, to show what they can do in this format and to try win games for us now in this format.

“It’s not only about getting an opportunity but its about making use of your opportunity is what I’ve stressed to the guys.”

There’ll also be some added pressure on last season’s Momentum One Day Cup youngsters, Matthew Breetzke and Sine Qeshile, to rise to the occasion and play maturely in the absence of some of the experienced players.

But they will both know that they can adjust their games and mindset to achieve the step up the team needs from them because they did very well last season for the Warriors, scored big runs and won games for them.

“Yes there’s a little bit more pressure on them because they’ve got to take the added responsibility but that’s what you want,” he continued.

“These guys have ambitions of playing for South Africa and that’s what they have to do, they have to win games if they want to see their names up there.

“There’s a World Cup in four years, there’s a T20I World Cup coming up pretty soon, so there’s no reason why they can’t set their goals a little bit higher in terms of that.”

Starting the competition away is not easy but for a team that won 75% of their away games last season, the Warriors will be backing themselves to get a positive result come Sunday.