WP hope to keep flying high

World Sports Betting Western Province will be looking to maintain their 100% start to the CSA T20 Challenge this week when they face the Auto Investment Dragons.

Following victories over the Hollywoodbets Dolphins and AET Tuskers last week, WSB Western Province will lock horns with the Dragons on Wednesday from 2pm, tickets available at Ticket Pro.

WSB batter Jonathan Bird has been in good form in the opening two matches.

The attacking left-hander won the Player of the Match in both matches for his scores of 40 (30 balls) and 61 not out (33 balls) against the Hollywoodbets Dolphins and AET Tuskers respectively.

"I have been in a bit of good form but it's still early in the competition, only two games in, so hopefully I can carry on contributing to the team. I think, just taking my time up front and then kind of capitalising on getting my eye in," said Bird.

"I think picking my match-ups, we always talk about it in our batting meetings.

"We all have a few bowlers, or a bowler, that we kind of enjoy facing during a game. And when that bowler comes on, we decide, Okay, now it's my turn to kind of pick it up or maybe look for that boundary.

"And then if I'm struggling with a bowler, I kind of think, Okay, let me maybe work it around for one and two. Maybe the bat at the other end will be able to hit him for a boundary."

Winning at WSB Newlands has been one of Province's main goals this season.

Bird said the team is fully focused and working hard to achieve this again on Wednesday.

"It's a great feeling to win at home and being able to win in front of our fans is a very good feeling. And then getting the Player of the Match award, I think I wasn't really thinking too much out there in the middle," he said.

"Just kind of going with the flow, batting how I wanted to bat. Our ultimate goal for the campaign is obviously to win it. I think we have a very strong team.

"A lot of players who have played around the world in T20 competitions, people that played the game for long. A lot of younger players who can feed off that energy from the players who have played a lot of cricket."

Bird knows the Dragons are a tough prospect after also facing the Potchefstroom-based side in the CSA 1-Day Cup final earlier in the season.

"Our main goal is ultimately to win this campaign as well. The Dragons coming up, we played them in the one-day final and managed to beat them," Bird said.

"So, obviously we're going to try to beat them again but we know they're a very, very tough team.

"They work well together and they fight until the end, so can't take anything for granted. And we're going to have to play good cricket to be able to win that game."