Stacked Knights are heavy favourites

THE Free State Knights, featuring a host of players with international experience, go into this week’s Pool B round of fixtures in the CSA T20 Knock-Out as clear favourites to top the group.

Adding to the advantage for the team coached by Allan Donald, is that they are playing at home, at the Mangaung Oval, the largest playing surface in South Africa.

Donald acknowledged that he has had a difficult time finalising his squad, such is the depth of talent available to him. “We can’t be more prepared than we are right now,” he said. “It’s going to be very tough in terms of selection. I take my hat off to all the players who have worked so hard to get themselves into a position to challenge for a spot in the team.”

Five players have featured for SA in the past, with Farhaan Berhardien and Rilee Rossouw both having played for the Proteas at the 2015 World Cup. Captain Pite van Biljon was recently in the Proteas T20 side, the big hitting Jacques Snyman was capped in Pakistan earlier this year, while Mangaliso Mosehle has played seven T20

internationals.

The Knights will open the Pool with a match against the Northerns Titans today. In recent seasons, the Titans have been the side that has been able to call on a number of Proteas. That is less the case now, although they still have Proteas Test captain Dean Elgar, who will lead them in Bloemfontein and Aaron Phangiso at their disposal. The pair of Division Two teams who round out the pool don’t have quite the depth of internationally experienced talent to call on. Nonetheless, both KwaZulu-Natal Inland and Mpumalanga will have taken some confidence in seeing how South Western Districts, another Division Two team, managed to qualify out of Pool A played in Kimberley at the weekend, knocking the Lions out of the competition, and beating Western Province along the