Only Morne Strydom, an Eastern Province reject who spent what was a waste of a season with Griqualand West last summer, traded, as did Mike Rindel and Roy Pienaar, on an ability and good fortune to take the fight to the opposition on the official opening day of the South African season.
Or, as one tabloid style headline put it: Day/night series opens with a Bang. Little mention was made of Gary Kirsten being unable to bat, a factor which disrupted Province's carefully-laid plans.
The result was an upset win for North West over Standard Bank League champions Province in an out of the way mining town amid the maize (corn to non-South Africans) belt.
About a three-hour run down the road in Bloemfontein the legendary batting pairing of Mike Rindel and Roy Pienaar were dishing it out to Free State which included Allan Donald, Hansie Cronje and Nicky Boje.
Either way not at all a bad night's entertainment for the crowds who flock to the domestic day/night series run under the banner of Standard Bank.
And minnows North West's win over a tired looking Province will certainly liven up expectations of teams such as Easterns and Border who start their programme this week. On Wednesday Easterns tackle Natal at Willowmoore Park in Benoni while Border are away on Friday to Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth.
Northerns have a home game against Province, most likely minus Gary Kirsten, and Gauteng (at home) and Griqualand West, now under the leadership of Kepler Wessels, are at home to Natal.
At Fochville Strydom, who 12 months ago went off to Griquas to seek fame and guidance from their coach, Eddie Barlow, returned to a far happier hunting ground. At first, however, he must have wondered whether the decision by his skipper, opening bowler David Pryke, to bat first had been a wise one.
At 13 for two with Neil Rossouw and Hendrik de Vos mulling over their misfortune of barely contributing to the eventual total of 273 for six, Strydom was in need of some support. After all, North West had not done too well in their pre-season build up. They were drilled by Free State in two days in a game meant to last three, and wiped out in a limited-overs match - failing to reach 150 when chasing 230.
There had also been a distinct lack of success in games against Easterns and Griquas, so why shouldn't Province, the opposition looking decidedly wobbly at 13 for two, feel confident of quickly rolling the country cousins and collect two easy points as well?
For the 24-year-old Strydom the support came from Louis Vorster and Bajan all-rounder Mark Lavine, a big striker of the ball who made left-arm spinner Claude Henderson on the night wish he had become a batsman instead of a bowler. But Fochville's Gert van Rensburg Stadium's boundaries are shorter than most. And if you are prepared to bat sensibly runs will come.
Strydom's innings of 93 off 112 balls included only 40 in boundaries; which shows that he was prepared to do a bit of leg work as well - and against a bowling attack heavily laden with limited-overs international experience. Although Craig Matthews and Eric Simons have been out of the LOI scene for several years the list of names in the bowling attack was highly impressive: Alan Dawson, Jacques Kallis and Brian McMillan. It should have been enough to awe most still trying to find their way in the game at this pressure-cooker style level.
Not to worry. Strydom, when asked by his skipper, provided the sort of all-round support with off-spinners which also worked out well - four for 16 in 4.5 overs is not a bad return as the Province batsmen went on the slog to no avail and conceded more than two runs an over in net run rate.