AFTER his explosive 46 off 18 balls dismantled Harare Bolts, Brian Bennett is confident Cape Town Samp Army has the momentum to conquer Joburg Bangla Tigers in the Zim Afro T10 2024 championship finale this Sunday afternoon.
The youthful Bennett has had a great debut season scoring 198 runs in nine innings
averaging 24.75 and striking at 175.
Going into the final he is the second best placed Zimbabwe batter behind Sikandar Raza who is fourth overall on the batting charts with 219 runs in eight innings.
Bennett does not have a 50, he has three scores in the forties, with a high score of 47 from 20 balls scored against Durban Wolves.
Going into the final against Joburg Bangla Tigers, not having a scored fifty does not bother the Zimbabwe top order batsman.
“In the first game (the Eliminator) I got a good ball and it was nice to get some runs in the second game, for me T10 milestones don’t really matter,” said Bennett.
“It is good to be in the final and now we have the momentum after getting two wins in a row, hopefully Sunday is our day.”
Opening the batting for the Samp Army has brought the best out of him: “T10 is a game that the batsman has free license to go for it from ball one and I have been enjoying it.”
Samp Army took the more difficult route to the final, they first played the Eliminator against NYS Lagos and then beat Harare Bolts in Qualifier 2.
They have played one more game than Joburg Bangla Tigers going into the final but it is something that Bennett does not think will disadvantage his team.
“I think we have the momentum, it’s only one more T10 game than them so it is not too much for the body,” he added.
Playing and sharing the dressing room with international stars has helped Bennett to develop his game further.
“It is nice to have guys like Dawid Malan in the changing room you learn a lot, just small things to change like technique, head falling over or something like that. But it is good to have them in the team, they have a lot of knowledge to share with us,” he said.
T10 is a batters game but Bennett believes bowling will be key and he is not reading too much into the opposition’s batting lineup.
“Bowling is going to be key, you have to try and restrict the batsmen. The game is won by runs not by wickets. Our bowling was very good throughout the tournament. Hopefully they will come right again in the final.
“They have some good players, we also have some good players and it will be a good battle on Sunday.”
