WI underdogs against S/Africa

LONDON: South Africa take on West Indies at The Oval for a place in the ICC Champions Trophy cricket semi-finals and Graeme Smith’s men will start as favourites. Seam bowler Charl Langeveldt is dropped from the side who beat Bangladesh and he could be replaced by Alan Dawson. Key all-rounder Jacques Kallis missed training yesterday morning with a sore throat but will be available.

West Indies dropped batsman Sylvester Joseph and Ricardo Powell and Corey Collymore are both vying for places. The South Africans trained at the Middlesex Academy in north London yesterday having been told they were not allowed to use the facilities at The Oval. Along with Kallis, Jacques Rudolph also opted to skip nets. But he is fine and South Africa are expected to be unchanged. Herschelle Gibbs is trying to end a desparately poor run of form in One-Day Internationals —  with just one half-century in his last 17 appearances.

Asked if he might he drop down into the middle order today, he said: “I don’t know, to be honest. That’s a confusing place to be. “At this stage I wouldn’t say I’m out of form but I’ve not taken so long not to score runs in the past. “As far as the last two weeks are concerned I’ve had some great practices and I’m still believing in the game and feel very positive. “I’m not going to move down the order simply because other people seem to think that’s a good idea. I still think I’m one of the best in the world at the top of the order —  it just takes one good score and then I’ll turn the corner.”

The West Indies were beaten 3-1 in a home series by South Africa at the start of the year but Gibbs warned: “They are a dangerous team —  they’ve got quite a few match-winners in there too. “You can’t take anybody lightly in this tournament.” West Indies opener Chris Gayle is happy his side are not expected to win. He said: “Sometimes it is good to be the underdogs going into a match. It means there is no room for complacency. “We will take the fight to South Africa. We lost the series there but played good cricket, and all the guys are looking forward to this match.”

South Africa (from): G Smith (captain), H Gibbs, J Kallis, J Rudolph, M van Jaarsveld, S Pollock, L Klusener, M Boucher (wkt), N Boje, R Peterson, M Ntini, and A Dawson.
West Indies (from): B Lara (captain), W Hinds, C Gayle, R Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, D Bravo, R Powell, C Browne, C Collymore, M Dillon, I Bradshaw, and D Sammy.