Kent batsman Mike Powell has told KSN he will be both nervous and excited as he faces South Africa’s bowlers at Canterbury this weekend.

Powell returns to the Kent side this week after having been given the past month off, sitting out the Twenty 20 tournament and will return to the batting line up at number four as the South African side look to warm up ahead of the Test Series against England.

The side will be skippered by Sam Northeast in Rob Key’s absence and Powell told KSN how he was feeling about facing the likes of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel ahead of the game:

“They’re quick aren’t they! I see how some of the senior boys are taking the week off. Mark Davies has gone to the extreme of going all the way back to Newcastle to get away from them!”

“It would be nice to be back, as long as they don’t bowl at 95mph! It’s nice to be back though and I’ve been itching to get a game. I had a run out with the second team the other day against Surrey in a One-Dayer, but it’s nice to be back to Canterbury and playing some first team cricket.”

“I know what it’s like coming back from the Twenty 20 to the four day stuff and it can take you time to settle into the routine and the structure of playing a long innings, so this game will be perfect for a few of our boys to settle back into that mindset.”

“I’m not too worried about Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis, it’s the fast bowling I’m worries about. I think I’ll duck, swerve and stay out of the way!”

“I’ve been talking to some of the boys about it and when you finish your career, you don’t talk about the rainy days when you’ve played Derby, with all due respect to them, you talk about playing the best in the world, so I hope we out in a good performance and have a good story to tell people in years to some.”

A crowd of around 4,000 is expected for the first day’s play at Canterbury on Friday and Powell told KSN how he was hoping the weather stays kind and people get to see some good cricket:

“I think it just goes to show that we will have some of the best players to have ever played for South Africa playing against us and it’s testament to the people that want to come out and watch these boys perform.”

One player that will be missing for South Africa is wicketkeeeper Mark Boucher who was forced to retire from international cricket and went back to South Africa after sustaining an eye injury in the warm up game at Taunton earlier in the week.

With Boucher missing, AB de Villiers will don the gloves for the South Africans and Powell told KSN how he was sad that the wicketkeeper wouldn’t be playing at Canterbury:

“It was horrendous and what a legend he has been for South Africa. He played something like 140 Tests and he has been a legend of our sport.”

“To finish in the way he did was tragic and he will be a huge miss to them and I’m sure they’ll try and do him proud in this series against England.”

Like a lot of Kent players, they will use this three day game to press for a place in the Championship side for the remainder of the season and Powell is no exception.

Two centuries for his new side since signing from Glamorgan in the winter has seen the 35 year old already cement a place in the Kent middle order and Powell told KSN how he was keen that the side take up where they left off in their last Championship game against Hampshire at Tunbridge Wells back in early June:

“Promotion spots are still up for grabs probably for five or six teams in our division. I don’t think anyone is talking about promotion in the changing room, it’s just about playing good cricket and do the things Jimmy (Adams) and Keysey have set us so far this season.”

It will be Powell’s former side Glamorgan that come to Canterbury next Thursday for the four day Championship game and he admitted the conditions would be somewhat different to the time they last met at the St Lawrence Ground in the day/night trial game back in September.

That match saw the two teams face each other under floodlights and using a pink ball, but for Powell he hopes that isn’t repeated in the future:

“I didn’t play in it, but talking to the boys back in Glamorgan, it was ridiculous and it was waste of time. Hopefully, the ECB have put that to bed and get on playing with the red ball as we’ve been playing with it for so long and why change it?”

Picture supplied by Saran Ansell. To see more of Sarah’s pictures visit www.sarahcanterbury.com