 West Indies and South Africa will be involved in a two match T20I series to be followed by five ODIs and three Tests in the West Indies. The first of the
T20I will be played at the Queen's Park Oval at the Port-of-Spain in Trinidad.
Both, the West Indies and South Africa have had a bad ICC World T20
tournament. In fact, if one were to compare the two sides then, the South African
performance was even more woeful than West Indies. South Africa lost to India,
Pakistan and England, and winning only against New Zealand and Afghanistan.
West Indies, on the other hand, beat England and Ireland, then lost to Sri Lanka,
beat India before losing to Australia and bowing out of the tournament.
Click for Live Score Card of West Indies Vs South AfricaThere has been a lot of talk in South Africa demanding the axe of the Graeme Smith and some of the other players like Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis.
Smith has not had the best of times as the captain of the side in the recent
times and despite his contract as the captain being till the end of the next
edition of fifty over World Cup, the selectors can think of replacing him with
another captain in this T20 format of the game.
However, nothing of this sort has happened and the side will be led by Smith,
and the likes of Kallis and Boucher will continue to remain. The only change
to the side is the removal of Herschell Gibbs, who will not travel to
the Caribbean with the team, and in his place will be 20-year old David Miller.
The bowling will continue to be led by the likes of Dale Steyn, and
the now-fit Wayne Parnell will also make a comeback into the team.
For West Indies, this is a very good chance to hit where it hurts the most.
The South African side looks demoralised with the attitude of their former cricketers,
and would be seething. Another early or two could mean an early closure to some
of their careers and that is the one reason why the side will be under pressure.
Chris Gayle will be the batsman to watch out for, but it will need the others
to contribute as well, given that the batsmen have generally struggled in the
World T20. It will also be interesting to see how the spinners go about their
business and throttle the opposition.
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