West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and chose to field against South Africa in their Cricket World Cup match in Southampton on Monday, hoping to make use of overcast conditions.
South Africa are desperate for a win to stay alive in the competition after three defeats in their three matches, while West Indies will be looking to bounce back from a loss to Australia last week after a good opening win against Pakistan.
Both sides made two changes.
South Africa brought in batsman Aiden Markram for JP Duminy and left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks, who replaced injured fast bowler Dale Steyn in the squad, makes his first start of the tournament, coming in for Tabraiz Shamsi.
Darren Bravo comes in for the West Indies to replace injured opener Evin Lewis. And seamer Kemar Roach is included in place of injured all-rounder Andre Russell.
“We are going to field first, obviously it is overcast and there is some rain around,” said Holder.
“We have reflected on the defeat to Australia which hurt us deeply but we have to move on. Take the learning out of it and make amends.
“We have to do the basics better, the batters have to take more responsibility.”
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said he would have liked to bowl first.
“You would assume that the whole game will be played in overcast conditions,” he said.
“We have played two of the strongest teams. It’s a six-week tournament and if you can turn that momentum around, you can ride it. It’s about not focusing on the negatives.”
Teams:
West Indies
Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope (wkt), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder (capt), Carlos Brathwaite, Ashley Nurse, Kemar Roach, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas
South Africa
Quinton de Kock (wkt), Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis (capt), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Beuran Hendricks, Imran Tahir
You might also like…World Cup 2019: We had a point to prove, says Virat Kohli after India beat Australia
India has announced themselves at the World Cup 2019 by notching a 36-run victory over defending champions Australia at The Oval on Sunday. Player of the Match Shikhar Dhawan’s 117 helped India post 352/7 in their 50 overs before the bowlers dismissed the opponents for 316 to win their 2nd successive win in the tournament.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli seemed mighty pleased with his team’s performance, especially after Australia beat them 3-2 in an ODI series held earlier this year in India. After the win, Kohli said that ‘intent right from ball one’ helped them conquer Australia while praising his bowlers for ‘an outstanding effort with the ball’ on a belter of a track at The Oval…Read more here
Source: News24
