West Indies will start their official I.C.C. World Cup Cricket match on Feb. 24 against South Africa.
This clash maybe the West Indies toughest start from facing India later down in the group. The toughest challenges that face West Indies are injuries and a valuable wicket keeper batsman because of the injuries of Carlton Baugh.
West Indies opener Adrian Barath is also injured and both players are home bound. This is some trouble for the West Indies because Chris Gayle and Barath are now settling in as a solid opening unit.
Serious
Responsibilities
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramneresh Sarwan, Gayle and Dwayne Bravo must step forward and get big scores for the West Indies in order for their team to make any success in the World Cup. In spite of the poor and ineffective West Indies bowling, if their batsmen should put up huge totals that may be an inspiration to the bowlers to come on strong and pick up wickets.
The West Indies is in Group B with India, South Africa, England, Bangladesh, Ireland and the Netherlands. The West Indies must win four games in order to go into the other round.
Windies Scoring Challenge
The West Indies will find it very difficult to score many runs against South Africa. Opening bowler Dale Steyn is undoubtedly the best fast bowler in the world in any type of cricket. Morne Morkel is the tall right-handed quickie while Lonwabo Tsotsobe is the tall left-handed high-powered fast bowler with many untimely and awkward bounce deliveries. Wayne Parnell, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson and Imran Jahir are the others with a strong built-up spin attack.
Go out in the middle and play aggressively but intelligently and this goes particularly to the West Indies batsmen. Good starts and getting out for 29 and 41 is not good for an individual score in the World Cup for a front line top batsman. Chris Gayle and the senior batsmen must occupy the crease for as long as possible.
Note: West Indies Head Coach Ottis Gibson should notify his team how important it is to occupy the wicket for the duration of the 50 overs and not fall 10 wickets down in 42 or 44 overs. The South Africans remain the favorite in this match with the West Indies.
