That nine of the 16 Premiership teams have foreign stars as their first-choice strikers ideally outlines the striker crisis in SA.

The scarcity of lethal homegrown strikers has been compelling local clubs to look beyond SA borders for players to spearhead their attacks in recent years. Kaizer Chiefs, one of the biggest clubs in the country, don't have any local natural striker in their roster this season, with Serbian Samir Nurkovic and Leonardo Castro from Colombia their leading marksmen.

To put things into perspective, out of the 16 elite league sides, only Royal AM, Cape Town City, Stellenbosch, AmaZulu, SuperSport United, Swallows and Baroka have SA strikers as main men up top. Bafana's Victor Letsoalo, who's the nearest rival to Mamelodi Sundowns and Namibia ace Peter Shalulile in the golden boot race, is Royal's first-choice striker. He has scored 14 league goals to Shalulile's 21, after the Sundowns man netted a second successive hat-trick this week.

At City, former SA youth international Khanyisa Mayo has stamped his authority as the leading striker, while Ashley Du Preez is doing the same at Stellenbosch. Sphelele Mthembu, Bongi Ntuli and Lehlohonolo Majoro are being rotated at AmaZulu, making it hard to identify the main man. Mayo has four league goals, two behind Du Preez. The Usuthu trio boast four goals between them.

Thamsanqa Gabuza, who has six DStv Premiership goals, is SuperSport's top dog as far as leading their attack is concerned. At Swallows, they have Ruzaigh Gamildien, while Bafana's Evidence Makgopa is the usual suspect to lead the attack at Baroka.

Gamildien has only scored three times in the league (not counting their game against Maritzburg United from yesterday). Makgopa had struck only twice in the DStv Premiership this term before facing Orlando Pirates last night.

The nine other clubs with foreigners as their main strikers have enjoyed a better return, as far as goals are concerned, compared to the ones with local-born forwards. Sundowns' Shalulile is the league's top-scorer while Cameroonian Bienvenu Eva Nga is doing wonders at Chippa, having already racked up 10 league goals.

Nigerian ace Chibuike Ohizu, who's Sekhukhune United's top striker, has scored seven times this term in the league, while his countryman Augustine Kwem has netted twice for TS Galaxy where's he been trusted to be their main point of reference.

At Golden Arrows, Knox Mutizwa (Zimbabwe), who has six league goals, has forever been leading the attack. Ghanaian starlet Kwame Peprah, 21, has six league goals to his name as Pirates' first-choice striker.

Friday Samu, who hails from Zambia, only joined Maritzburg in January but already he's their No.1 striker. At Marumo Gallants, Ivorian striker Junior Dion has been starting more games as their striker ahead of homegrown forwards like Letsie Koapeng and Lerato Lamola.

Leading strikers at PSL teams

Sundowns: Peter Shalulile (Namibia)

Royal: Victor Letsoalo*

Chiefs: Samir Nurkovic (Serbia)

City: Khanyisa Mayo*

Pirates: Kwame Peprah (Ghana)

Stellenbosch: Ashley Du Preez*

AmaZulu: Bongi Ntuli*

SuperSport: Thamsanqa Gabuza *

Arrows: Knox Mutizwa (Zim) 

Sekhukhune: Chibuike Ohizu (Nigeria) 

Gallants: Junior Dion (Ivory Coast) 

Maritzburg: Friday Samu (Zambia) 

Chippa: Bienvenu Eva Nga (Cameroon) 

Galaxy: Augustine Kwem (Nigeria) 

Swallows: Ruzaigh Gamildien*

Baroka: Evidence Makgopa*

* denotes SA-born strikers