Temba Bavuma will be one of the star attractions when he takes red hot form into the second edition of the Momentum eKasi Challenge between the bizhub Highveld Lions and The Unlimited Titans at Soweto’s Dobsonville Oval at the Bramfischerville Sports Complex on Friday August 22.
The 24-year-old has just come back from an outstanding tour of Australia with the South Africa A side, during which his two innings of 162 and 55 played a pivotal role in enabling his team to beat Australia A in the four-day unofficial Test series. In the former innings he shared a partnership of 343 with Castle Lager Proteas new cap, Rilee Rossouw, which was the highest by a South African team in Australia.
Bavuma will by no means be the only standout player in action. Dean Elgar, who will make his debut for the Titans, has just come off successful Test series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, and will be keen to make a good start to his new franchise career.
The Titans will be fielding five other Proteas in Heino Kuhn, Farhaan Behardien, Albie Morkel, David Wiese and Roelof van der Merwe.
There will be several younger players looking to make their mark. These include Theunis de Bruyn, who led Pretoria University to their World Campus T20 Challenge victory in England recently, and Yaseen Valli, who was a member of the Coca-Cola South Africa world champion under-19 squad this year.
The Lions won the inaugural challenge last year and will be out to retain Gauteng bragging rights. The occasion goes beyond the actual match as was outlined by Lions coach, Geoffrey Toyana.
“Soweto is my home, where I learned to play cricket,” he said. “It is an amazing feeling to be able to go back to my roots and have the Lions team play in this match. The boys are raring to go with pre-season preparations going according to plan. We will definitely arrive on the day ready to defend our title in the Momentum eKasi Challenge. I hope that this will promote the team and the game in this area.
“We would love some of the future bizhub Highveld Lions players to come from Dobsonville and Soweto,” he added.
Play starts at 09:30.
Both teams will be able to use their full squad of 13 players, although only 11 can bat and only 11 can be in the field at any time.
Teams:
Lions: Matthew Arnold, Temba Bavuma, Gulam Bodi, Devon Conway, Stephen Cook, Sean Jamison, Eddie Leie, Pumelela Matshikwe, Dwaine Pretorius, Rassie van der Dussen, Yaseen Valli, Nicky van den Bergh, Hardus Viljoen
Titans: Farhaan Behardien, Junior Dala, Theunis de Bruyn, Dean Elgar, Heino Kuhn, Eden Links, Ethy Mbhalati, Albie Morkel, Mangaliso Mosehle, Rowan Richards, Tabraiz Shamzi, Roelof van der Merwe, David Wiese
