Yorkshire v Lions live Champions League T20 2012

Saturday could potentially be a major day for the teams in Champions League with the double header in Group A to be played in Johannesburg.

The afternoon match will see Highveld Lions take on Yorkshire.

The match has the potential of rendering the remaining three matches in the group meaningless as such has been the turn of events in the group.

Highveld Lions have two wins from three matches and another win will seal their entry into the semi-final alongside Sydney Sixers. After impressing in the first two matches, Lions suffered a beating at the hands of Sydney Sixers, losing by five wickets.

Captain Alviro Petersen remains upbeat nevertheless, and has reason to believe so as well. Their opponents have not been in the best of form and that is just the sort of uplift that they need.

As usual, Gulam Bodi and Neil McKenzie will have a critical role to play in the batting order. Bodi has scored two consecutive half-centuries while McKenzie has been instrumental in pacing the run chases to perfection.

Yorkshire, on the other hand, were never expected to do outstandingly well at the tournament that clearly they came under prepared for.

After the surprising wins in the qualification round, the miseries have only piled on for the English t20 runners-up. They were thrashed by Sydney Sixers in a heavily lopsided contest while their outing against Mumbai Indians ended in a no result after rain spoiled another evening match.

The problems have been compounded by injuries to Ryan Sidebottom and Moin Ashraf.

The news suggests that the players’ fitness will be monitored before the toss. Captain Andrew Gale himself needs to rediscover his lost form after failing in his last three innings, accumulating only 23 runs.

The match will be played in Johannesburg, starting at 1.30pm local time.