Highveld Lions

The Highveld Lions, with players from Gauteng and North West provinces in South Africa, qualify for the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 2010 by virtue of being runners-up in the Pro20 competition in South Africa. Among the players to look out for in the Lions' squad are captain Alviro Petersen, the ever-dependable Neil McKenzie. The Lions' Vaughn van Jaarsveld finished as the team's top run-getter (249 runs in 8 matches) - second in the list of the top run-getters in the Pro20 2009/10, while Robert Frylinck finished as the tournament's leading wicket-taker. The Lions will feature in the tournament's very first game, against the Mumbai Indians, which will be played at their home ground Wanderers. They certainly will be hoping to feature in the last game of the tournament too - the title clash - which will be played at the same ground.

Guyana

Guyana come to South Africa this September hoping to go one better than their Caribbean counterparts, Trinidad and Tobago, runners-up of the inaugural edition of CLT20 in India. Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is a state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. It has produced cricketing greats like Clive Lloyd, Basil Butcher, Colin Croft, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, Roger Harper, Carl Hooper and Alvin Kallicharran. Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan is the only big name in the current side but the presence of some talented youngsters like Devendra Bishoo and Jonathan Foo gives Guyana an opportunity to surprise their rivals with the unexpected. Guyana's passage to CLT20 wasn't the easiest of affairs. Playing in the semi-final of the Caribbean T20 2010, they beat Trinidad and Tobago, the defending champions, in a closely contested match and then snatched victory after very nearly courting defeat against Barbados in the final.

Chennai Super Kings

They were the only team to make it to the semi-finals of each of the three seasons of the Indian Premier League, the Chennai Super Kings make it to this edition of the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 by virtue of winning IPL 2010. Led by the flamboyant and charismatic MS Dhoni, Chennai Super Kings have some of the fiercest strikers of the cricket ball in their line-up like Matthew Hayden, Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay.
The bowling department appeared to be Chennai Super Kings' weak-link in the initial stages of the IPL 2010. However, Doug Bollinger, called in as a replacement player, together with the spin trio of Muttiah Muralitharan, Shadab Jakati and Ravichandran Ashwin, kept chipping away at opposition batsmen much to the delight of the team management. Despite their bowling department lacking the big names like some of the other competing teams, Chennai Super Kings will be keen to replicate their performances in the IPL 2010 and add the CLT20 title to their roster of merits.

Central Districts Stags

The Central Stags are New Zealand's representative in the 2010 Airtel Champions League Twenty20. The Stags - the team from Central Districts - made it to the CLT20 by beating Auckland Aces in the final of the HRV Cup - New Zealand's domestic Twenty20 competition.
It wasn't surprising that the Stags won the HRV Cup, given that they have several exciting players in their line-up. Among the batsmen, they have Peter Ingram who finished as one of the top two run-getters in the HRV Cup. They will miss the services of Ross Tayor, the other leading run-scorer, who will turn out for RCB in this tournament instead. Another casualty is Jacob Oram - one of the top two wicket-takers in the domestic competition - who is out with injury. But with players like Matthew Sinclair and Michael Mason, the Stags have an impressive unit with players who can swing the course of a match single-handedly. With their title win in the HRV Cup in the season just gone by, the Central Stags have ended a brief drought of titles; they last won a title in domestic cricket in 2005-06 when they picked up the Shell Trophy.

Bushrangers & Redbacks Beaten by the Bulls.

It wasn’t a good day for either of the Champions League T20 hopefuls from Australia, Victorian Bushrangers and South Australian Redbacks. The two teams were beaten by the Queensland Bulls on the same day in the Top End Twenty20 challenge in Darwin.

In the first match, the Bushrangers were beaten by three wickets in the last over. The Bushrangers could only manage to sum up a 109 runs from their 20 overs, and lost seven wickets in that time. Despite all the Bushrangers’ efforts, the Bulls eventually won the match with three balls to spare.

In the second match of the day, the Bulls continued to be the in-form team beating the Redbacks by four wickets. The Redbacks runners up started well with Michael Klinger’s second half- century in as many days. But despite Klinger’s efforts, the Redbacks finished with 7-129. And the Graham Manou-led side couldn’t stop the Bulls’ charge as the Queensland side reached 6-133 from 18.1 overs to complete a comfortable victory.

Both the Bushrangers and the Redbacks will be looking to lift their performances before the start of Champions League Twenty20 on September 10. And they’ll have a chance to redeem themselves on Sunday when the Redbacks take on the Bushrangers and Bulls on a Super Sunday in Darwin.