If there is one person in the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants camp who knows how to exploit conditions at St George’s Park it is allrounder Jon-Jon Smuts.
The Giants captain has led the Warriors in umpteen matches at the world’s oldest Test venue and has first-hand knowledge of what it takes to win inside the grand old lady.
His “golden” left arm has taken wickets when his team needed them most and his swinging blade has punished many attacks down the years.
So his input and performances are going to be crucial to the Giants’ success as they target as many wins in the five home matches in the Mzansi Super League T20 as possible.
The Giants have two away games first against Jozi Stars on Saturday and Cape Town Blitz on Wednesday, before they head to St George’s Park for their first home game against Durban Heat next Friday.
Without downplaying the importance of victory in the two opening away games, Smuts spoke about how important home games were.
“In all these kinds of tournaments, if you play well at home it takes a lot of pressure off you,” he said.
“Here in PE, it’s probably the one place that’s different to everywhere else. So for us it’s about really exploiting our conditions well.”
Spin will play an important role and the Giants are blessed in that department.
“We’ve got a fairly unknown bowler called Imran Tahir who’s obviously going to help us a bit,” Smuts joked.
“Immy’s available from the second game onwards so he will be a massive boost for us.
“We’ve got another guy who has actually done well in PE as well in leftarmer Aaron Phangiso. Then we have a very exciting talent in [legspinner] Dyllan Matthews from the Joburg area.
“We’ve got some really good seam options for PE conditions, some fast bowlers with some good skills, so we’ve got all departments covered.”
The players started arriving in PE on Sunday and are now a full contingent with the exception of Imran Tahir, Chris Morris (both in Australia) and Englishman Jason Roy, who arrives on December 3.
Smuts said his troops were raring to go.
“PE is a great place for cricket. The PE crowd is unbelievable and from the players’ point of view, we can't wait to get going.”