Ken Borland

The Joburg Super Kings have secured the services of Stephen Fleming as their head coach for the inaugural SA20 tournament and the New Zealander will obviously have good memories of returning to the Wanderers, where he steered the mother franchise – the Chennai Super Kings – to the Champions League title in 2010.

As the owners of the Johannesburg franchise, it is understandable that CSK would appoint their much-admired head coach to take the reins. Fleming has won the IPL four times and been runner-up another four times during his two stints as Chennai coach.

“My last memory of being at the Wanderers was with Chennai, winning the Champions League. I remember it very fondly, it’s a wonderful ground,” Fleming said.

“First thing I remember was the support that we got through South Africa, which was a surprise for all of us. It just shows the passion of the South African cricket fans to follow good cricket.

“We like to produce that and we’re really hoping we can get good support from Johannesburg and around the country. That’s a big part of what Chennai is about,” Fleming said.

Faf du Plessis, who made his IPL bow with the Chennai Super Kings in 2011, spent a decade with the franchise and it must have been hell for him when they did not retain him ahead of this year’s IPL auction, where they then lost out on his services in a bidding war with Bangalore Royal Challengers.

But he is now back in the Chennai fold and will captain the Joburg Super Kings. Du Plessis has an impressive record at the Wanderers, averaging 40.61 in his 15 T20s there, and he made South Africa’s highest T20I score – 119 off 56 balls – there against the West Indies in 2015.

“I have an extremely lucky and long relationship with Chennai,” Du Plessis said. “When the opportunity presented itself to play for them again, I was extremely happy.

“I think the SA20 league is going to be incredibly crucial for the sustainability of South African cricket. Being involved with the IPL for the last 11 years, I’ve seen first-hand the difference that T20 leagues can have on a country’s cricket.

“You see the difference that it makes to the younger players. That knowledge, wisdom and experience that you can share with your young talent in your own country, that’s extremely important for the growth of the national team.

“I’ve been lucky as a player and as a captain to have some really good leaders in my time. Starting under Graeme Smith, then moving to AB de Villiers, then my time at Chennai Super Kings, where Stephen Fleming was really influential at the beginning of my leadership journey,” Du Plessis said.

Coach Dave Nosworthy went out of his way on Wednesday to assure bizhub Highveld Lions fans that his team are not satisfied with merely qualifying for the Champions League; instead, there is a great hunger in the side to win Sunday’s MiWay T20 Challenge final against the Nashua Titans at the Wanderers.

The Lions topped the round-robin log to qualify for the lucrative Champions League for the second time in three seasons, but Nosworthy said this time they are determined to go one better and win the final. In 2009/10, the Lions were hammered by 82 runs by the Eastern Cape Warriors in the final.

“We’ve learnt a lesson from the previous season we qualified for the Champions League, when we rode the honeymoon for too long. Two years ago at St George’s Park, it was a big honeymoon for us and we relaxed mentally. There’s a totally different vibe in the side now and the most important thing for them is the final. The Champions League is great, but the guys are desperate to get over the line on Sunday and will be right up for the game,” Nosworthy said at the Wanderers on Wednesday.

The Lions have not played a full match in the last fortnight, bad weather causing both their games against the Sunfoil Dolphins and the New Age Impi to be abandoned, but the loss of momentum has been partially offset by the opportunity to refocus after the joy of qualifying in first place.

“The emotions have been allowed to come off that massive high and we were out in the middle yesterday, regaining any lost momentum with a middle practice where we set different scenarios. So our preparations are on track,” Nosworthy said.

Nosworthy managed to arrest the decline in confidence in the side after a miserable One-Day Cup campaign at the end of last year in which the Lions finished bottom of the log after winning just two of their 10 games.

“There’s a lot of belief in the side and a balance between the experienced players who have won stuff before and the exuberance of youth. The team chemistry has been one of the key things and when games have gone down to the wire, we’ve had that belief. We’ve stuck to our game plans and kept to our good habits,” Nosworthy said.

The former Titans coach confirmed that he will definitely be making use of the services of Alviro Petersen, who returned from New Zealand with the national team on Wednesday afternoon. While the opening batsman is obviously in form and is a proven limited-overs performer, there is always the risk of disruption to the side, especially since Petersen has been in test-match mode for the last three weeks.

“Alviro will come straight back into the team as captain. He was here for the first four matches and the issues are more if you change four or five players, which changes the whole dynamic. But through this season, Alviro has been more with us than anywhere else and everyone’s more than comfortable with him coming back.

“The players all know his plans and the relationship between him and Thami Tsolekile [the previous captain] is crucial. It is brilliant, they are good mates, so Alviro comes back, he has always been part of us,” Nosworthy said.

http://www.supersport.com/cricket/domestic-t20/news/120328/Nosworthy_assures_fans_of_Lions_focus