Sammy promises Windies will entertain
Windies captain Darren Sammy has promised his team will “entertain” the Nagpur faithful and expects a thrilling match against SA.
|||Nagpur - West Indies captain Darren Sammy has promised his team will “entertain” the Nagpur faithful and expects a thrilling World T20 Super 10 contest against South Africa on Friday evening.
The match is of significant consequence for both teams. The Windies are seeking their third consecutive victory after defeating England and Sri Lanka previously to follow New Zealand as the second team to qualify for next week’s semi-finals.
South Africa, meanwhile, face a virtual “must-win” situation after collecting just one victory against Associate nation Afghanistan from their two Group 1 matches. England beat South Africa when they chased down the highest ever score at a World T20 after the Proteas posted 229/4 last week at the Wankhede Stadium.
Filled with the confidence after beating both former champions in their group already, the Windies can be expected to come out and play with their natural flair and unique Caribbean style. They possess some of the biggest match-winners going around of the T20 circuit and also have significant experience of not only playing in the Indian Premier League, but also the various other global T20 leagues like South Africa’s RamSlam T20, Australia’s Big Bash, England’s Natwest T20 Blast and also their very own Caribbean Premier League.
“I’ve said it many times, once we do what we do well, we are a force to reckon with. We are very destructive. We’ve doing just the basic things well. Someone at the top of the order has carried their bat throughout. We’ve also being bowling well.
“On a pitch in Mumbai where the average score on that day was probably 200, we restricted the team to 180. In Bangalore too we bowled really well. We’ve being doing the basics right and in T20 for is it is about entertaining and keeping it simple. We have really gelled well as a team. We are aiming to do well against South Africa,” the Windies captain told the media yesterday.
The one aspect South Africa does have in their favour though is their recent record against the Windies across other formats, specifically One-Day Internationals where the Proteas have been supremely dominant. The catalyst for many of these victories has notably been the South Africa’s own batting superstar AB de Villiers.
The Proteas Test and ODI captain lit up the Wanderers in the “Pink ODI” two years ago when he blitzed the fastest century in ODI cricket off just 31 balls before tormenting the Windies bowlers even more just a month later at the World Cup when he smashed the quickest 150 (off 64 balls) at the SCG.
Sammy, though, believes his maroon machine will be ready for De Villiers here at the VCA Stadium.
“Yes, we’ve gotten the rough end of the stick from him on lots of occasions. He is a world class player,” Sammy admitted. “But every game is a new game. Every game a batsman starts fresh. We have our plans for him.”
Independent Media