DHAKA: Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla hit pair of fifties, propelling South Africa to set a challenging target for West Indies bowling in the teams’ ICC Cricket World Cup Pool B match in Sydney on Friday.
Till filling this report, South Africa scored 176 runs for three losses in 34 overs.
Quinton de Kock and Amla began the South Africa’s innings. Kock make an early walk to the pavilion after being victim of Jason Holder.
Plessis came to the crease and began accompanying Amla. The former scored 62 runs off 70 balls while the latter added 65 runs off 88 balls. Chris Gayle stopped both of them.
Rilee Rossouw and AB de Villiers are on the crease now with 17 and 12 runs respectively.
Earlier, South Africa captain AB de Villiers won the toss and decided to bat first. The match kicked off at 9:30am Bangladesh time at Sydney Cricket Ground.
South Africa made some changes. Rossouw and Behardien are in while Duminy and Parnell are out. For West Indies, Sulieman Benn is in while Nikita Miller is out.
South Africa skipper AB de Villiers said, “Clear with what we need to do against all the WI players. Have to keep our feet on the ground and lay a foundation for the middle order. No prefernce, we just want to play good cricket and win games. Can't control the toss. Bat or bowl first, we have to both well".
"We have had some discussions, we tried to get away from what happened at the MCG, little bit embarrassing what happened there. We'll try to be better today", he added.
West Indies captain JO Holder said, "Good pitch, not too disheartened to be bowling first. Sulieman Benn comes in for Miller. We want to put some wins on the board and bring back some pride for West Indies"
Teams
South Africa
HM Amla, Q de Kock†, F du Plessis, RR Rossouw, AB de Villiers*, DA Miller, F Behardien, DW Steyn, KJ Abbott, M Morkel, Imran Tahir
West Indies
DR Smith, CH Gayle, MN Samuels, D Ramdin†, LMP Simmons, JL Carter, DJG Sammy, AD Russell, JO Holder*, JE Taylor, SJ Benn
Umpires - SJ Davis and IJ Gould (England)
TV umpire - REJ Martinesz (Sri Lanka)
Match referee - RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire - Aleem Dar (Pakistan)
BDST: 1200 HRS, FEB 27 2015