One of the nice stories of the Twenty20 World Cup has been seeing the perpetually-ailing West Indian Cricket side succeed.
The shorter format of the game has seen the superstars of the side achieve great success, as the ever-polarising Chris Gayle is completely in his element. They currently lead Group One and a victory here will see them sailing through to the finals of the tournament.
This is must win for the Proteas, who sit in third place in the group. As a purist and Australian I adore the South African Cricket side. I look at that squad and think of glorious Test matches.
Much like the Aussies though, that class doesn’t appear to be translating to T20 cricket, much like the Aussies. Leg-spinner Imran Tahir has been ruled out for this match with a slight hamstring strain, but is expected to make a full recovery for their final match against Sri Lanka. The Proteas will be hoping they can cope with his loss, otherwise they can get ready to catch a plane home.
I’m not a betting man and as a neutral will be praying for my beloved Proteas to lose their chocker tag. Reality, stats and current form indicate a bolstered West Indies side should have this one in the bag. It’s good for Windies cricket, but one can’t hope but think it’d be even better if we could get Gayle and company to pick up the bat for more than 20 overs.
A happy story to come out of tonight’s result either way but it’s the West Indies for the win for me.
South Africa v West Indies; Group 1, match 27
Time: 1:00am (AEDT) Friday, March 25
Venue: Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur
Squads (Final XIs to be named at toss):
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (c), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Chris Morris, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, David Wiese
West Indies: Darren Sammy (c), Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Ashley Nurse, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor
Riaan Hendricks
Guest
The author should have a little more faith in the Proteas. If Faf wins the toss, we should bowl first, our bowlers are weaker than theirs, but whatever score they set, we can make. 200+ is nothing to us.
felix
Guest
Proteas will find a way,difficult pitch WI bowlers are better but SA have the best batsman going around. Dale Steyn has to make a difference and yes I know he just mite be the worst bowler currently playing in the tournament but I doubt he'll stay there if any fast bowler can bowl on a dust bowl he can ;-)