South Africa v West Indies
South Africa v West Indies24/2/2011
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South Africa threw up a big surprise in their first match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 against West Indies. Not too long ago, if you told anyone South Africa played with 3 spinners on their team, you’d only hear laughter. But it looks like the Proteas are all set to try anything to win that World Cup for their trophy cabinet which has been eluding them for too long. Imran Tahir made his debut and made an instant impact. A slow and low Feroz Shah Kotla pitch didn’t play too well in West Indies’ favour as all of their top guns failed. Darren Bravo who is touted as the next Lara in West Indies cricket, showed a good mix of temperament and style to score 73. He looks like he can be a classy player. But then again, so did a lot of other West Indians.
None of the other batsmen got going and West Indies folded up for 222, with Tahir picking up for wickets on his international debut. He will be delighted.
South African run chase didn’t start off too well. They lost the two pillars that their batting has been built on for the last 12 months- Amla and Kallis- in very quick succession. West Indies looked like they were going to make a match of it. But they only flattered to deceive. Ab de Villiers and Graeme Smith provided the rescue act for South Africa and dug them out. De Villiers has averaged over 50 in his last 45 matches and he proved his class to the world yet again by scoring a brilliant century. JP Duminy got some runs under his belt too. South Africa delivered a top performance and will try their best to achieve the World Cup dream.
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