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[VIDEO] West Indies vs South Africa highlights: 2015 Cricket World Cup scores, blog

27th February, 2015
Start: Saturday, February 27 2.30 pm AEDST (14:00 local)
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Broadcast: Fox Sports 3 (live), ABC Local Radio, Grandstand Digital, ABC Radio App (live)
Head to Head: Played 125, New Zealand 34, Australia 85, No Results 6
WC Head to Head: Played 8, New Zealand 2, Australia 6
Could missing world cup qualification break up the West Indies? (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
Roar Guru
27th February, 2015
256
8659 Reads

South Africa need to regain some of their momentum going into their 2015 Cricket World Cup game against the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground from 2:30pm (AEDT) on Friday. You can follow the live scores and blog of that crucial Group B game here at The Roar.

It has been a below-par start to the World Cup for South Africa. Two games into the competition and they have scraped through to a win against a so-called minnow nation and then went down to India by a whopping 130 runs in the second encounter.

What South Africa can definitely not afford to do is to put in another below-par performance and risk losing another game because that will push them down the points table and make for a tough second round test.

A position other than the top two could go on to ensure that the South Africans are left to play one of the host nations in quarter-finals – a proposition difficult to fathom.

Of course, it’s not that South Africa will be rollovers all of a sudden, they are still an excellent side and they can still go on to dominate most oppositions in the world. But they need an all-round improvement in all departments of the game.

Their batting, for instance, was appalling in the first half against Zimbabwe and throughout the match against India.

Their bowling struggled in both those games too, with the team going for 277 against Zimbabwe and more than 300 against India.

What made it even worse was that the South African fielding did not support their bowling at all against India. Catches were put down and there were a few misfields that allowed their opposition to pile up that kind of a score and against West Indies that fear is even more.

Because West Indies have a line-up which can easily destroy attacks.

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While Chris Gayle did not practice in the day before the game, his back having flared up, no one was talking about it because the team and even AB de Villiers reckons it does not matter really. De Villiers revealed that Gayle’s practice before the IPL games for Bangalore was never intense and he often missed it to retain control over his body.

Marlon Samuels is also coming off a century but the team needs guys like Dwayne Smith and Darren Bravo to fire with the bat.

If the Sydney pitch shows signs it will turn, the West Indies could bring Sulieman Benn back for this game in place of another spinner, Nikita Miller, but it’s tough to see them go in with two left-arm slow bowlers.

Of course it will depend on the pitch but for them to play two slow bowlers could work against a team like South Africa who have struggled a bit in the competition.

You can follow the live score and blog of this West Indies vs South Africa World Cup 2015 encounter from ​2:00 pm AEDT on Friday and post your comments ​in the section ​below.

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