South Africa Domestic: Kirsten wary of Easterns day/night challenge

Durban: It is amazing what a victory can achieve, especially in territory as barren as has been Bloemfontein in recent years. Now Northerns are eyeing their day/night outing at Willowmoore Park tomorrow night with a lot more confidence.

And the coach, Peter Kirsten, acknowledges that Easterns are going to be a lot tougher than the last time the two met back in October when the neighbourly SuperSport Series dust up was anything but neighbourly.

This particular Standard Bank clash was moved forward some weeks ago after the original date of December 27 was just a little too awkward for both sides. Now about the only problem concerning Kirsten is the decision whether to play Rudi Bryson ahead of Greg Smith.

Northerns are to field about the same side which lost to Free State in the day/night game in Centurion a week ago with Smith back in the equation again while Easterns, after their success over Griqualand West in the four day game and victory over North West in the slogs earlier this month, no doubt fancy their chances.

Derek Brand, a name which does not slip off the tongue as easily as for example their skipper Deon Jordaan, clubbed a century against a North West side which seems to have run out of form, and Mark Conyers, another who went through the Northerns Academy, also among the runs.

Being their second match in the day/night series, Easterns are quite chuffed at their log position and have become stronger as the season has progressed with Andre Nel, Pierre de Bruyn and Conyers all making the most of their chances in recent weeks.

As Kirsten suggested yesterday, however, Northerns cannot pick a stronger limited-over batting side than they have with the Mike Rindel-Roy Pienaar axis as the top of the order as accomplished and as street wise as you are going to get.

``It is a matter of getting the basics right and the players in the side are experienced enough to know what is required,'' Kirsten said. ``The victory in difficult circumstances over Free State on Monday was a good win and it has lifted the spirits within the side,'' he said. ``It was a question of being patient. The same applies to this game in Benoni.''

Smith has missed the second and third outings in the slogs series and it could be an interesting experiment to use the left arm and right arm bowling combination against Easterns. Leaving out Bryson though is not an easy option as his limited-overs success is too pronounced to ignore.

The team: Northerns (from): Mike Rindel, Roy Pienaar, Rudolf Steyn, Neil McKenzie, Martin van Jaarsveld, Gerald Dros, Steve Elworthy, Dirkie de Vos, Pierre Joubert, Mpho Pedi, Rudi Bryson, Greg Smith.