South Africa lost to England before beating Afghanistan and are in a must-win situation as another defeat could put them in danger of making an early exit from the tournament. The West Indies didn’t require him as opener Andre Fletcher struck an unbeaten 84 helped the Windies side to register a seven-wicket victory at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. We have six steps to the cup.
Advertisement
Quietly confident: West Indies captain Darren Sammy, left, with coach Phillip Simmons at net practice.
“There’s a few mistakes we made, but I do think that bowling will be a little bit different in these conditions”.
“If we win this game we definitely qualify for the semis, so it’s the position, it’s a game, it’s a must-win game tomorrow to us”.
Chris Gayle (WI): He picked up an injury while fielding against Sri Lanka, and despite all his efforts to bat during the game, he was denied as West Indies cantered to a comfortable win.
After the stunning loss to England, who chased down a record 230-run target, South Africa beat minnows Afghanistan to be placed precariously in third spot, two points behind England.
– If they lose to South Africa and beat Afghanistan, they will either go through directly or get embroiled in a three-way tie with South Africa and England, provided both beat Sri Lanka. Neither of the two were overly convincing in South Africa’s opening fixture against England, but Morris fared far better against Afghanistan. I have not bowled in the tournament as yet, Chris has not bowled one over.
And let us not forget the powerful West Indies batting.
“I’ve said many times, once we do what we do well, we are a force to be reckoned well”.
Darren Sammy (capt), Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Ashley Nurse, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Evin Lewis, Jerome Taylor. For the first time we have depth as a team, we are relying on that depth to come through. “We know we have 15 match-winners in our dressing room”.
“Pakistan and India play well in these conditions and we have to do better. Games with West Indies tend to be exciting, so hopefully we can keep entertaining the way we have been since the inception of T20 and at the end of the day, get a place in the semi-finals”. Since their NRR is not as good as South Africa’s, they need a convincing win in one of their two remaining games to significantly push up their chances.
Advertisement
“A line-up of Quinton (de Kock), (Hashim) Amla, Faf (du Plessis), AB, (David) Miller – these are all great players”, Sammy said. “We can be destructive and so far we have been doing just the basic things well”.
