Windies seek to dent South Africa’s World Cup dream

ICC Cricket World Cup…

– Teams’ first meet since June 2016

By Brandon Corlette

Officially reputed to be “the dark horses” of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) 2019 World Cup tourney currently being played in England, the West Indies will be aiming to register their second win of this important tourney when they clash with the winless South Africa tomorrow, Monday June 10, 2019, at the Rose Bowl in Southampton from 5:30 hours local time.

Nicholas Pooran has shown great promise with the bat

Infamously reputed to be “chokers in important tournaments” like the ICC World Cup, South Africa will be aiming to register a first win of the tourney when the two teams clash.
West Indies will be playing their third match of the tournament, while South Africa will be playing their fourth. Ranked world number three, South Africa have looked a pathetic outfit, although in bilateral series they have shown their dominance.

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir

In their last five series since 2018, South Africa have defeated Sri Lanka (3-2), Zimbabwe (3-0), Australia (2-1), Pakistan (3-2), and Sri Lanka (5-0). Their performance in the ICC World Cup have thus far belied their capability.
With both teams fresh from defeat, South Africa will be wary of the West Indies, who showed spirit and effort in both their fixtures — the win against Pakistan and the narrow defeat by Australia. The West Indies have played 15 ODI series since 2016/17, but have not played South Africa since their home tri-series in 2016.
The two teams were set to face off in a warm-up match prior to the World Cup, but rain intervened and the match was abandoned. South Africa are a fairly unfamiliar unit to the new generation West Indies.
South Africa opened their World Cup campaign with a 10-run defeat by England, a 21-run defeat by Bangladesh, and a six-wicket loss to India. They are clearly low on confidence, and will be eager to bounce back and get their World Cup campaign on a roll. Based on performances thus far shown, the Windies will start as favourites despite South Africa being ranked higher.
Playing an aggressive brand of cricket, especially with the ball, the Jason Holder-led West Indies team will rely on their pacemen to rock the South African batting order, which includes world class players Hashim Amla, Quinton De Kock and Captain Faf du Plessis.
South Africa’s bowling attack has been weakened with the absence of Lungi Ngidi and Dale Steyn, who are suffering injuries of their own. Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris are stuck with the responsibility of leading the pace attack, while Imran Tahir will be the lead spinner.
West Indies and South Africa have been in some riveting encounters in past ODIs, but have last played an ODI against each other in 2016; a Tri-Nation Series with Australia in the Caribbean. That encounter, played at Bridgetown, Barbados, saw Darren Bravo, currently out of the team, smashing a century to lead West Indies to 285 all out. Then Shannon Gabriel and Sunil Narine snared three wickets each to restrict South Africa to 185 all out; causing the Windies to triumph by 100 runs.
With a batting line-up that includes Chris Gayle, Shai Hope, Andre Russell, and young duo Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer, the West Indies are likely able to successfully confront the South African bowlers.