Strikers' selectors in picking pickle for EP

Clive Eksteen, Mark O'Donnell and the Highveld Strikers selectors have an interesting conundrum to solve before Wednesday night when the Strikers entertain the EP Jumbos at the Wanderers.

"It's really a question of who to leave out now that Sven (Koenig) and Andrew (Hall) are back," Eksteen admitted after the Strikers had got their limited-overs season back on track with a deserved 21-run victory over Western Province on Saturday night.

Koenig re-enters the frame by virtue of having completed his one-match suspension and Hall returns from duty with the national side in Port Elizabeth and East London over the weekend.

While Eksteen would undoubtedly rather have both Koenig and Hall available than neither, he did feel that one of the major virtues of the Strikers' victory on Saturday was that the performance was based on a healthy team effort, hence his reluctance to single out which unfortunate two will have to sit out.

Not that everything the Strikers touched turned to gold against WP.

Herschelle Gibbs was severe on poor Walter Masimula, although Masimula did redeem himself by taking an excellent catch in the deep off David Terbrugge to dismiss Alan Dawson; Ottis Gibson, used as an experimental opener, managed to use almost all parts of the bat except the sweet spot in his quiet innings of 18 and Nic Pothas, too, had a subdued afternoon with the bat.

None of the three, however, deserves to be dropped and this might mean that poor Geoffrey Toyana and one other step down. Toyana was caught and bowled by Dawson for one near the end of the Strikers' innings and might conceivably be expecting to face the axe for this match at least.

The omission of Toyana would, however, raise the question of the province's stated commitment to playing black players and such thoughts might in turn raise the possibility of doing without Zander de Bruyn.

This is not to suggest that Eksteen felt that there was anything wrong with De Bruyn's performance against WP - far from it, in fact.

He made special mention of De Bruyn and Marthinus Otto's sixth-wicket partnership of 64 and although De Bruyn only made 24 off them it was quickfire stuff at a crucial stage of the innings.

All of this assumes, of course, that both Hall and Koenig will play and assumption never has been an exact science.

The Jumbos are in second position on the log, two points behind Easterns with a game in hand. Add to this Eksteen's stated regard for a team that can boast the all-round skills of Justin Kemp and the evergreen wiles of Dave Callaghan, and the Strikers will want to be at their best.

This means places for Hall and Koenig but a temporary breather for two players who played their part in a good team effort on Saturday night.

EP Jumbos

Carl Bradfield (captain), Mark Benfield, James Bryant, Dave Callaghan, Justin Kemp, Murray Creed Robin Peterson, Shafiek Abrahams, Wayne Murray (W/K), Mornantau Hayward, Garnett Kruger, Mfuneko Ngam