The much-anticipated second edition of the Betway SA20 will get underway on Wednesday, however Durban's Super Giants will begin their campaign with a mouth-watering clash with MI Cape Town at Kingsmead Stadium on Thursday evening.
The 2023 campaign for Durban's Super Giants gained momentum towards the backend but it was too late to mount a charge for the play-offs. This season the squad assembled will be eager to start positively against a strong MI Cape Town side.
There remains a strong core of players in DSG's squad from the inaugural SA20 last year, and they have bolstered their squad in the right areas according to captain Keshav Maharaj.
"I think the balance of the squad is a lot better than it was last season," Maharaj said. "We've gone with more specialists this year and we know that we have world-class performers in our ranks.
"We've got players that have won trophies, so that experience and that winning mentality is in our squad. It's now about us hitting our straps and making sure we are following our processes and are clear about what we want to do on the field."
Getting off to a strong start is a standard requirement for teams in condensed competitions like this. For Maharaj, looking back on 2023, he reiterates the need for DSG to start strongly.
"We saw last year that you cannot wait until the end to rely on results to go your way so it's important that we start well and build momentum with strong performances at home.
"You see in these sorts of tournaments that the teams that do well, win at home; so hopefully we can start on that note and build up from there," Maharaj said.
Last year the crowds at Kingsmead were very impressive and the ground has been a hive of cricketing activity this season with three T20 Internationals against Australia and one T20 International against India which were all either sold out or very close. Maharaj is confident that the Durban faithful will be back in their numbers in 2024.
"We got a taste of it last year and it was incredible to see Kingsmead full again and to see how the stadium looks now it's even better than last year.
"I'm hoping that the fans come out in their numbers to support our Durban team and we will entertain the fans with the brand of cricket that we want to play," he added.
Thursday's clash between Durban's Super Giants and MI Cape Town will start at 17:30 at Kingsmead Stadium and tickets are available at ticketpros.co.za and at the stadium ticket office.
Durban's Super Giants Squad:
Keshav Maharaj (captain), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Reece Topley, Matthew Breetzke, Jason Smith, Keemo Paul, Jon-Jon Smuts, Noor Ahmad, Bryce Parsons, Prenelan Subrayen, Heinrich Klaasen, Wiaan Mulder, Dwaine Pretorius, Junior Dala, Tony de Zorzi, Kyle Mayers, Navneen Ul-Haq, Bhanuka Rajapaksa