Cape Town — Cape Town may long have adopted Hashim Amla as one of their own, but in Durban they still regard the Proteas legend as their favourite son.
Having been schooled just a stone throw away from the famous old ground before beginning his illustrious career facing bowlers running in from the Umngeni and Old Fort Road Ends, there are few who know Kingsmead better than Amla.
And it's this intimate knowledge which their “batting guru” possesses that MI Cape Town are going to rely on in their first trip to the East Coast to face Durban’s Super Giants when the SA20 resumes today.
“He is an absolute legend in so many formats, and Durban is of course his home city, so just try to speak to him about the different scoring areas, and a little bit about the local players in the Durban team. To have that experience and wealth of knowledge is a real asset. He is an absolute guru in batting,” MI Cape Town’s new Australian signing Tim David said.
“It’s been really helpful for me to play with Hashim before I joined MI Cape Town. I played with him a couple of years ago at Surrey, so to have that pre-existing relationship is amazing, so it just means that the barrier is broken down a little bit and I can speak to him about batting a lot more confidently.”
Amla’s words of wisdom will certainly be beneficial to the 1.96m Australian who will have to hit the ground running from the outset. MI Cape Town find themselves involved in a basement battle with the Super Giants and require maximum points to get them back in the race for the playoffs before they move to the Highveld for their final two league matches against the Pretoria Capitals and Joburg Super Kings.
A team blessed with their amount of talent and skill would regard anything other than a playoff finish as a disappointment, which is why MI Cape Town have further bolstered their squad with the big-hitting Australian.
“It’s pretty simple. The team has to win a couple of games to make the playoffs, so that’s the target. We have to go back to the process of how we are going to do that. We have had some really good training sessions, for me personally, to get to know the other guys in the group and see how they like to play,” he said.
“We had a really good hit out in the middle of the ground, which was good for me to get used to the conditions so that I can help the team to try and win.
“I felt good. I’ve been batting really well. I always feel like I have lots of stuff to improve on. I don’t feel anywhere close to where I want to be, but hopefully I am in a good mindset that I am hitting the ball to impact the games.”
The Super Giants, meanwhile, are even further off the pace with just eight points after seven matches. They realistically only have a chance of progressing to the playoffs if they started winning again and other results go their way.
Their chances have been further impacted with captain and star batter Quinton de Kock picking up a finger injury while playing for the Proteas against England on Sunday. De Kock has been cleared to bat, but not keep wicket. The Super Giants could though take the risk by placing Heinrich Klaasen behind the stumps for the all-important clash.
IOL Sport