The Proteas face an uphill battle to make it to the semi-finals, but must simply focus on one game at a time – and the mission will be to notch a first win by any means necessary.
The West Indies made a good start to the tournament against Sri Lanka, powered by red-hot seamers, but their batting and lack of killer instinct let them down against Australia.
10 June 2019 |
South Africa v West Indies |
The Rose Bowl, Southampton |
11:30
To Win Match
South Africa 92/100
Draw 35/1
West Indies 92/100
South Africa
There have been few positives to take from the opening three games, but Rassie van der Dussen has shown promise in the middle order – and Chris Morris hasn’t bowled as badly as he was expected to in this tournament.
The core of senior players have been disappointing and a lack of middle-order runs has put tremendous pressure on opener Quinton de Kock, who is the only one of top-order to threaten to take opposition bowlers to task.
In three matches, South Africa have used their entire squad barring Beuran Hendricks, who has been flown out to replace the injured Dale Steyn. Steyn’s ODI career appears to be over after a recurrence of a troublesome shoulder injury. Hendricks’ left-arm seam will offer the Proteas variation in their attack, but batting remains the biggest concern.
There are not a lot of options for the Proteas to mix things up within the batting ranks – and they will need a massive improvement to go toe-to-toe with the Windies calypso power.
India carted Tabraiz Shamsi all over the Rose Bowl – and he should be the one to make way for Hendricks to make his World Cup debut.
West Indies
The West Indies are in a position the Proteas will envy, with little pressure or expectation on them – and they have won one World Cup match and lost another by just 15 runs.
The Windies can’t afford to dwell on what might have been in a tournament where matches come thick and fast for all teams – and coach Floyd Reifer will want to get his bowlers back on track after they let things slip against Australia.
Shimron Hetmyer has been tagged as one to watch for the tournament, but he has made a slow start not helped by a disastrous run-out against Australia just as he looked to be getting into the swing of things.
Skipper Jason Holder has been inspirational, making contributions with bat and ball – and he and fellow all-rounder Andre Russell give this team the lower-order power to hurt teams at the back-end, even if the middle-order fails.
Verdict: West Indies 92/100
For all the Proteas’ protestations that the pressure was off them in this tournament, three consecutive losses has left them with their backs to the wall and the team lacks the backbone to right itself.
Written by Jonhenry Wilson
