JONTY Rhodes will return to the Natal cricket team when they host Boland in a SuperSport Series game at Kingsmead from Thursday to Sunday, while batsman Ahmed Amla will make his A Section debut.

These are the only changes to the Natal squad announced yesterday after the draw with North-West at the weekend. Spinners Goolam Bodi and Kevin Pieterson, 12th man in Potchefstroom, are the two players to make way. Rhodes pulled a thigh muscle during the limited-overs internationals in Kenya recently, but there was no major damage and the Dolphins' biggest drawcard will be back in action at Kingsmead on Thursday after missing just one game.

Although always in control, Natal could not secure a win against newly-promoted North-West on the flattest of pitches in Potchefstroom, despite scoring 504 for three and 254 for two in their two innings, both of which were declared closed.

"I think North-West were very happy to finish with a draw," was Natal coach Phil Russell's verdict. "The groundsman did a great job. They wanted to get a draw and the pitch was very conducive to that," Russell, himself a former groundsman of international repute, said yesterday.

"We scored at more than four an over throughout, while they were battling to get to three an over. We took 13 wickets while losing only five," Russell said, adding that he did not view the draw as a failure in any way as he felt Natal had "bowled brilliantly" but were undone by an unfair pitch. Bodi was the one disappointment from the weekend, conceding 91 runs in his 14 overs in the match, but Russell was adamant the left-arm spinner from Gauteng would remain part of the Natal set-up despite being dropped for this week's match.

"I see great potential there, but one must remember he's still only 20 and one can't expect him to bowl like Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralitharan. He's just starting to learn his trade," Russell said in defence of the bowler whose long-hops and full tosses were despatched all over the park. Amla, who made a huge impression over in Ireland while on tour there with the SA Academy team earlier this year, comes into the side after scoring a top-class half-century for Natal B against Gauteng B at the weekend.

The Natal second-stringers beat their Gauteng counterparts in their three-day UCB Bowl fixture but lost their limited-overs contest. Keith Storey, with a five-wicket haul in the Gauteng second innings, Kyle Bender (60), Mark Sanders (88) and Gary Gilder, who bowled well but without much luck, were the other Natal B players to single out from the weekend in Johannesburg.

Natal squad: Ahmed Amla, Eldine Baptiste, Dale Benkenstein (capt), Mark Bruyns, Andrew Hudson, Lance Klusener, Robbie Macqueen, Shaun Pollock, Jonty Rhodes, Errol Stewart, Ross Veenstra, Doug Watson.