SOUTHAMPTON: West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and chose to field against South Africa in their World Cup match in Southampton on Monday, hoping to make use of overcast conditions.
Faf du Plessis’s South Africa are struggling to stay alive in the tournament, having lost all their three of their group matches so far, including a shock defeat to Bangladesh. They have a do-or-die situation to stay in the race for the final four.
West Indies will be looking to bounce back from a loss to Australia last week after a good opening win against Pakistan. West Indies have won one of the two matches they have played so far. They won their first game against Pakistan, but lost their match against Australia by 15 runs.
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:
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis (capt), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Beuran Hendricks, Imran Tahir
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope (wk), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder (capt), Carlos Brathwaite, Ashley Nurse, Kemar Roach Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas
