Captain Faf du Plessis will again negotiate the absences of batsmen Aiden Markram and JP Duminy, come Friday’s Mzansi Super League fixture against the Durban Heat at Kingsmead.

Markram and Duminy were named in the Rocks squad for this year’s MSL, but have since been sidelined by respective hand and hamstring injuries. England recruit James Vince, meanwhile, has arrived.

Also see: Duminy and Ontong join Rocks’ coaching staff

‘We’ve had one too many injuries before the competition even started, so it has challenged our batting order a little bit,’ said Du Plessis.

‘But Vince is here for the next game, which will help to sort things out.’

The first match of the Paarl franchise’s 2019 campaign yielded victory over the Cape Town Blitz late last week. Du Plessis, opener Henry Davids and all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius shone with the bat, before wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi starred with the ball.

‘In the first game, I thought from a batting point of view we had a really strong powerplay. Guys taking the powerplay on, but then maybe lost out on around 10 or 15 runs from overs 10 to 20, so there’s a little bit of improvement to work on there,’ added Du Plessis.

‘But we were challenged because of being that one batter short in our balance. With the ball, though, we were excellent. You pick guys for a reason to use their skill set in the conditions and all our guys were brilliant.’

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