GAYLE RETURNS
MSL CLASH: SWASHBUCKLING OPENER WILL TEST BLITZ In-form Hendricks delighted the big Windies star is back.
The resurgent Jozi Stars take on the top-of-thetable Cape Town Blitz in the Mzansi Super League at Newlands on Tuesday evening and it will be compulsory viewing as the phenomenal Reeza Hendricks teams up at the top of the order with the greatest T20 batsman of all time, Chris Gayle, for the visitors.
Hendricks became the first South African to score consecutive T20 centuries at the weekend and is clearly a batsman on the rise in South African cricket, while Gayle, who has scored a staggering 21 T20 centuries, is available to the Jozi Stars again for the first time since the first round.
And Hendricks, who has been quick to praise the batsmen around him for the platform they have laid for his recent stellar success, is clearly looking forward to opening the batting with a man who averages over 40 and has a strike-rate of 148 in the shortest format of the game.
“We’ve got Chris Gayle back, so we are quietly confident, hopefully we can get some points at Newlands. The Blitz are playing very well at the moment, they are sitting pretty at the top, so it is going to be an important game for us, especially away from home. But we’re quite happy with our last two games, it was a good weekend for us and hopefully we can pick up a few more wins.
“The first six overs are very important, you need to get off to a good start, and the other batsmen have played very well, they’ve set the base. Guys like Rassie van der Dussen and Dan Christian have then taken the game away from the bowlers, which has allowed me to just play. So it’s been a good batting display overall,” Hendricks said.
While the other Jozi batsmen have made their contributory marks, the star batsman of the Cape Town Blitz, Quinton de Kock, had to do it pretty much all on his own as he scored his century against the Tshwane Spartans at the weekend.
The home side will be hoping the poor overall batting of their last game was just a once-off.
“We won’t get complacent because we really want to carry on this momentum. Our work ethic is always 100% because we have very hungry youngsters and the older guys are helping them out. So there’s no need to say anything special before the game, everyone understands the game and how very dangerous the Jozi Stars are. We’ll have to fight,” De Kock said.