Windies look to salvage pride

KINGSTON, JAMAICA: Following a decisive Test series defeat, the West Indies have set its sights on salvaging pride in the One Day International series against South Africa which starts with the first ODI today at Sabina Park. Game two is tomorrow also at this ground. “We had a couple guys attending to family business in Trinidad, but they arrived on Friday in time to lead the home team’s lineup tomorrow,” a Windies spokesman said. Batting talisman Brian Lara and skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the two most experienced members of the side, will be joined by the bulk of the Test batting lineup in Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Hard-hitting Dwayne Smith, who has not represented the West Indies since last summer in England, returns to boost the side with his athletic fielding and medium-pace bowling. Smith, Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, fresh off a maiden century in this week’s fourth and final Test in Antigua, carry the responsibility as all-rounders. The bowling — which has been the team’s achilles heels of late — is boosted by the experienced Barbadian trio of  Pedro Collins, Ian Bradshaw and Corey Collymore. Left-armer Collins, who was a standout in the tri-series in Australia in January, returns from an injury that kept him out of  the last two Tests of the Digicel series.

Collymore and Bradshaw are one-day specialists who join Collins and Jamaican Daren Powell in the seam quartet in the squad. The 34-year-old Courtney Browne will have to produce consistent performances to stave off the advance of younger wicket-keeping contenders, in particular Carlton Baugh of Jamaica and Dinesh Ramdin of Trinidad and Tobago. West Indies coach Bennet King says he is expecting an improved all-round performance from the regional side as they seek to bounce back from the disappointment of the Test series, which started off brightly with a draw in Guyana but sank to embarrassing back-to-back defeats in Triniad and Barbados, before the drawn fourth Test, when the series was already dead as a contest.

South Africa has history on its side, winning 21 of the 33 one-dayers between the sides, and carrying the confidence of a 2-0 Test series victory. The visitors have been boosted by the arrival of Justin Kemp, the 1.93-metre (6-foot-4) all-rounder who exploded back onto the international scene with big-hitting heroics in this year’s series against England and Zimbabwe. Former skipper Shaun Pollock, who went wicketless on his international return in the final Test, got a lift with a four-wicket haul in a warm-up match against Jamaica on Thursday. He joins Test series heroes’ Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel in a potent pace attack.

Ntini and Nel each took 17 wickets in the four-Test rubber with man of the match performances along the way. Like the West Indies, South Africa retains the majority of its Test batsmen for the shorter version of the game. Captain Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers are likely to face the new ball after successive opening stands of 70, 117, 191 and 245 in the Test series. Jacques Kallis shifts to No 3 with Herschelle Gibbs, Kemp and left-hander Ashwell Prince lending depth to the middle order.

SQUADS:
West Indies: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne, Ian Bradshaw, Daren Powell, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, Xavier Marshall.
South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, Justin Kemp, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Boetta Dippenaar, Monde Zondeki. (AP)