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The second edition of the Betway SA20 gets underway at St George’s Park in Gqeberha tomorrow with the hosts and defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape taking on the Joburg Super Kings.
Despite winning both group matches last January, Faf du Plessis’ JSK side were dumped out of the tournament at the semi-final stage by Aiden Markram’s Sunrisers.
The bowlers from both sides will be roaring to go with the tall left-arm paceman Marco Jansen leading the way for the home side while new sensation, Nandre Burger, will be teaming up with “The Karate Kid”, Gerald Coetzee, depending on his fitness test post his pelvic inflamation which ruled him out of the second Test against India.
The left-arm speedster is looking forward to teaming up with Coetzee. “We have a pretty good relationship. It’s cool every time we get to bowl together. It’s a cool little partnership. I think we gel quite nicely, and I think we complement each other very well,” said Burger.
“The band is incredible in terms of the atmosphere it creates. In fact, just the atmosphere this entire stadium creates. It is so cool every time you experience it. It’s unreal. I am so excited. The crowd is always buzzing.
“I find it so cool when a crowd gets involved in a game. It’s the coolest thing when you’re running in and the crowd is cheering,” he said.
The Sunrisers will be without the dynamic and experienced Roelof van der Merwe this campaign, but coach Adrian Birrell covered the loss by bringing off-spinner Simon Harmer back to the Eastern Cape. Harmer, who plied his trade with the Durban Super Giants last season, moved down the coast with Jon-Jon Smuts moving in the opposite direction.
“This is where my cricketing journey started as a 19-year-old moving down to Port Elizabeth from Pretoria. Gqeberha will always have a special place in my heart, playing in front of the band here, the stadium, the people, the friendly city, very easy going. It’s somewhere that I’ve always enjoyed playing and that I love,” Harmer said.
“Seeing the star above the badge, I want to be a contributor to that… It’s very exciting being the defending champions but the biggest thing for us is looking to win the trophy this year and not looking to defend our title.
“Looking from the outside last year and being involved this year, that’s one thing that the Sunrisers have in their corner is that it’s a bunch of good people, obviously with exceptional skills.
“I’m a very competitive person. I’m going to look to be true to myself and bring that competitive edge, but I definitely think it was a factor in me being in this seat today,” he added.
The defending champions have had to deal with two late withdrawals. Seamer Sisanda Magala and fast bowler Craig Overton withdrew due to injury with Magala being replaced with the hard-hitting allrounder, Patrick Kruger.
