World Cup 2015 Match 19 Group B South Africa vs West Indies preview

World Cup 2015 Match 19 Group B South Africa vs West Indies preview:

Date: 27th Feb 2015         Time: 0900 IST
Venue: Sydney

South Africa and West Indies will take on each other in an important match of Group B tomorrow at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The match is important because the winner will be assured a place in the knockout stages and a big win might get them an easier opponent in the quarterfinals.

South Africa

South Africa will be looking to redeem them after losing to India in their last match. India batted first after winning the toss and made 307/7 with Shikhar Dhawan scoring a wonderful 137. The South African bowlers did manage to create some pressure, but they also let the partnership between Dhawan and Rahane develop, which ultimate took India above 300. South African batting was put under tremendous pressure by Indian fast bowlers for once. South Africa needs to get their opening corrected since Quinton de Kock as an opener is not working for them. His short ball problem has been exploited to the max by the opposition. While their problem with spinners came forth in the match, they will be much better equipped to handle West Indian bowling line up. Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers will look to put the defeat behind and go ahead with a fresh mind-set against Windies.

On the bowling front, they have lost Vernon Philander to injury and that will bring in Kyle Abbott into the team. They might also try Aaron Phangiso since the West Indian batting is also susceptible to spin. But their bowling was good enough to restrict a batting line up like India to 307/7.
South Africa will be confident enough to beat West Indies and qualify to the knockout stage.

West Indies

West Indies are on the high after beating Zimbabwe with a big margin and seeing Chris Gayle back in form. Chris Gayle became the first batsman to score a double hundred in World cup history and showed that he was back in form. West Indies will be mighty happy about that as they have to face a wonderful pace line up in Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott with Wayne Parnell as backup.

Marlon Samuels’ hundred and the fact that they have batting in form down the order will give them confidence that they can beat South Africa. Despite South Africa hammering them in the 5 match series, they managed to win the last match with 1 wicket in hand and they have enough firepower in both batting and bowling to put pressure on South Africa.

They will rue the loss of Darren Bravo in their batting lineup, but his will give the young Jonathan Carter a chance to show his talent in the biggest stage of them all in cricket. They know they need at-least 300 runs on board if they bat first to put pressure on South Africa or chase 300 plus if they bat second.

Last 5 ODIs:
West Indies: W W L W L
South Africa: L W W L W

Possible Playing XIs:

West Indies: Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Jonathan Carter, Sulieman Benn, Jason Holder (C),  Denesh Ramdin (WK), Nikita Miller, Andre Russell, Jerome Taylor

South Africa: AB de Villiers (c), Hashim Amla, Kyle Abbott, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn.