Newlands is all dressed up and ready to open its gates to this season’s SA20 with Trent Boult and Joe Root set to play a prominent role on Monday evening.

The MI Cape Town faithful have been waiting in great anticipation to see the likes of captain Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Kagiso Rabada, Dewald Brevis, the red-hot Delano Potgieter and local boy George Linde amongst others in action on home turf.

They will have that opportunity now with the blockbuster Western Cape derby between MI Cape Town and local rivals Paarl Royals kickstarting the action at Newlands.

MICT hold the bragging rights with the two wins over the Royals’ one in previous SA20 derby clashes.

Opening bowler Boult will no doubt have to play a role in helping MI Cape Town preserve their record, but the New Zealand superstar is still pinching himself about his return to one of the great citadels of world cricket.

“It’s going to be great to have our first home game of the season,” Boult said. “It’s one of the most iconic, picturesque grounds in the world, so it’s a great place to play some cricket.”

Boult has already shown his world-class ability to swing the new ball upfront in MICT’s previous two matches against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Joburg Super Kings where the left-armer knocked over high-players such as England international Zak Crawley and his former Black Caps teammate Devon Conway.

Another fascinating duel awaits at Newlands on Monday with Boult going head-to-head against England’s highest-ever Test run-scorer Joe Root.

“Do I have something special for him [Root]? Yes, probably,” Boult said with a laugh. “No, no. Joe is a guy who I’ve played a lot of cricket against as well as a couple of other players in that team.

“We had a little practice game, warm-up game against them a few days back and they’re a quality side.

“They had a good start to the tournament as well so there’s going to be all to play for.”

Equally, Root has already made significant impact for the Royals with an undefeated half-century on debut while guiding teenager star Lhuan-dre Pretorius out in the middle during their outstanding 132-run opening stand against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

The Yorkshireman certainly relishes being in South Africa for his maiden SA20 safari.

“I love the atmosphere. The support was amazing. I knew that would be the case coming into it, knowing Jos [Buttler] and Jason [Roy],” Root said. “I love being back here in South Africa. Love being part of SA20. Looking forward to the rest of the competition.”

Photo: Ron Gaunt/Sportzpics

New Zealand quick Trent Boult came out on top in his memorable battle with England Test opener Zak Crawley at St George’s Park on Thursday.

Boult has not played Test cricket for two-and a-bit years. And here he was standing on top of his mark with Crawley awaiting the first delivery of his SA20 career.

It was a match-up for the ages. Who would come out on top in this contest?

Crawley landed the first blow. A crunching back-foot drive through the offside that sped to the boundary faster than the speed of light.

“Bazball” had officially crash-landed at SA20.

How was Boult going to respond? Or was Crawley going to royally entertain the rousing St George’s Park crowd.

What ensued out in the middle was arguably the most captivating little period in SA20’s two-year and one game history.

Boult showed that he had lost none of the skill and swing factor that had terrorised the Proteas in that epic 2015 World Cup semi-final at Auckland’s Eden Park.

His first response was to slant the ball past Crawley’s outside edge with precision. It was the perfect set up to then bring the ball back into the right-hander that literally cut Crawley in half with the ball missing the stumps by mere millimetres

But such is the “Bazball” way that Crawley responded with a bash to the leg side the very next delivery that raced away for another boundary.

This prompted Boult to change the angle of delivery to around the wicket.

It is these subtle changes that 35-year-old has finetuned over the years and it promptly brought him success when he burst through Crawley’s defences to smash into the off stump.

“The chance to have the new ball and run in with pretty good conditions. A packed house. It was a great feeling,” Boult said.

“Zak is a great player. I’ve come up against him a few times, but it’s been a few haircuts since I’ve been back at this beautiful ground. I remember being very scared at a Test match about 12 years ago. It’s the only other time I’ve played here, but obviously to start this great tournament against the defending champions who the crowd was rightfully behind, so to silence them a little bit was fun.”

Boult doubled up when he had Tom Abell caught and bowled a few deliveries later to complete an incredible double-wicket maiden over.

The Kiwi talisman had laid out the formula for the rest of the MI Cape Town bowling attack to follow, which they duly did, particularly allrounder Delano Potgieter who claimed career-best figures of 5-10 to power the visitors a 97-run victory.

“Ball in hand under lights is a simple recipe for most of us swing bowlers. Generally like to pitch the ball up. There was a little bit of swing out there,” Boult said.

“As a unit I thought we gelled nicely together for the first time. Delano is a rocket … 5-10, can’t wait to see him do that again!

“We will take a lot of confidence from that. It’s a quick schedule, fly and play again in almost 24 hours, so hopefully we can repeat the performance.”

Boult and MICT will be swinging into action again on Saturday evening at the Wanderers when they face off against the Joburg Super Kings.

Photo: Richard Huggard/Sportzpics

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