Nelson Mandela Bay Giants will have even more reason to head to the Mother City bursting with confidence as they welcome Proteas cricket stars Imran Tahir and Chris Morris into their squad this week.
The duo have returned from a successful tour of Australia with the South African team and will join up with a Giants’ squad which already has a skip in its step after beating the Jozi Stars by five wickets in their opening Mzansi League T20 encounter in Johannesburg on Saturday evening.
The tough part is that two players will have to make way for Tahir and Morris, and Giants coach Eric Simons admits it will not be easy selecting his next starting lineup to face the Cape Town Blitz on Wednesday.
“We’ve always been a very balanced squad but the arrival of Imran Tahir and Chris Morris obviously adds new depth, new dimension and new experience to the side,” Simons said on Sunday.
“It’s always a nice position to be in when you can have good, tough conversations about selection. Nobody deserves to be left out after the game, but obviously we have two international cricketers coming back and we want the best side in the field against Cape Town Blitz.
“They are also a very good team and they have got a win under the belt as well, and we are looking forward to a very exciting game on Wednesday.”
The Giants got off to a near perfect start, chasing down the Stars’ modest total of 124 with two overs to spare on Saturday night. “It’s obviously good to get off to a win in tournaments like these,” Simons said.
“There’s still a long way to go obviously but it’s good at the start of the tournament to get some momentum going, to get some confidence in the team.
“It [victory] was set up with some very good bowling. To bowl any team out, no matter what the conditions are, for less than 130 is an exceptional performance.”
Proteas fast bowler Junior Dala was impressive for the Giants with the ball, as were the two leftarm spinners, JonJon Smuts and Aaron Phangiso.
“We set a good tone up front. Junior Dala bowled with good aggression and bowled a lot of deliveries that had the opposition jumping around.
“There are still some lines I think we can improve on. We had very specific strategies and plans for batsmen, and I think there were some that were not quite on the mark, but you also don’t want to play your perfect match the first one of the tournament. You want to keep sure you are moving towards, being better and better,” he said.
“Jon-Jon Smuts and Aaron Phangiso after the power play were brilliant – they strangled the Jozi side and that led to the wickets falling,” Simons, a former Proteas allrounder, said.
A bonus-point victory would have been extra special for the Giants, but once man-of-the-match Ben Duckett got out for 75 off 45 balls the team settled for the victory without taking any unnecessary chances.
“Ben Duckett, I suppose, was the statement of the match. He batted particularly well and we were in a spot of bother I suppose with two down. They would have felt they were in with a chance and he did really well,” Simons said.
“I think that he’s made a statement in this tournament, in particular where he scored his runs. He hit the ball very well square of the wicket from lines that one would not regularly expect to get hit in those areas. So the opposition will be strategising against him to see what tactics they use against him going forward,” he said.