Structure brings improved performances, says Kruger

Warriors all-rounder Patrick Kruger believes the structure he has brought to his training is paying dividends in his all-round performances after yet another valuable contribution for the side.

Kruger played a hand with bat and ball to help his side claim a fourth Cricket SA T20 Challenge win on the trot, his latest showing coming against the Rocks in a 32-run Duckworth-Lewis method victory at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Sunday.

Three of those wins have been achieved with bonus points, keeping them firmly in the top spot on the log and two points ahead of the Lions in second place on 17 points.

While Jiveshen Pillay top-scored for the Gqeberha side with 45 in the match and Beyers Swanepoel claimed 4/16 to receive the batter and bowler of the match awards, it is difficult to overlook Kruger’s contributions, particularly in the last two matches.

In Sunday’s encounter, Kruger struck an unbeaten 29 from 24 balls, helping his side amass 166/6.

In defending the total, Kruger grabbed three important wickets while conceding 20 runs in 2.4 overs alongside Swanepoel’s four-fer to derail the Boland side’s chase after an 11-minute rain stoppage, as the visitors were dismissed for 117.

Kruger’s stats for this season may not be record-breaking but the returns have been valuable for the Warriors.

He finds himself in second position on the table with seven wickets, two behind teammate Siya Simetu, who leads the charge with nine scalps.

“I have been good mentally, I was lucky enough for my season to start well,” Kruger said. “I try to take things day by day, session by session.

“I’ve brought more structure to my sessions and things are a lot more planned.

“The SA20 also helped me to sort out my game and how I go about things, which plays a big role in how I’m playing now, it’s about having confidence in my ability and backing myself.

“I’m a lot calmer now, there is a plan to my batting, the coach always said that if you can knock it about at the back end with the odd boundary, you never know what you can achieve.”

Given the grey overhead conditions earlier in the day, Kruger said the plan was always to bat first.

“If I’m being honest, we were probably 20 runs short of what we would have liked to achieve.

“The pitch got better to bat on while we were batting, one out of every 10 deliveries stuck in the wicket, but the others were coming through quite nicely, and when the lights came on, the ball did skid on a bit.

“When the rain came during their batting innings, I wouldn’t say that it affected us as much as people thought a delay like that would.

“Our main objective, particularly after the stoppage, was to ensure we kept doing what we were doing, keeping it simple, making sure we kept putting the ball in the right areas and making sure we fight to stop every run in the field,” he said.

They next play Western Province at St George’s Park on Thursday (2pm).