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| September 13, 2002 | Friday | Rajab 5, 1423 |
South African skipper plays down favourites tag
COLOMBO, Sept 12: South Africa captain Shaun Pollock has played down his side’s tag as favourites to beat the West Indies in their Champions Trophy match Friday.
Pollock’s side have an impressive record against the West Indies, having beaten them 5-2 in a one-day series in their last encounter in the Caribbean in early 2001.
Privately, that type of statistic must be a comfort for South Africa and a worry for Carl Hooper’s side in a match both teams know they have to win to maintain a realistic hope of progressing to the semifinal stage.
Publicly, however, Pollock is still reluctant to consider his side as certainties for victory.
“We go into a lot of tournaments as a fancied team and we might be favourites for this match on paper here, but paper doesn’t count for much once the game starts,” he told Reuters.
“They have a team that includes some all-star performers who can win matches on their own. You’ve only got to mention the name Lara to sum up their potential.
“Ultimately it’s up to us to play well, stick to our game-plans and put pressure on them. We’ve done that in the past and it’s been successful and now it’s up to us to do it again.”
Pollock said South Africa were likely to stick with the nucleus of the side that reached the final of the recent Morocco tri-series. With Roger Telemachus not on tour, the only likely change might be the inclusion of fellow seamer Alan Dawson.
The match may also see Pollock using the off-spin of opener Graeme Smith. He has been used sparingly so far in his international career, against Australia and in Morocco, but he may feature more prominently with the ball, particularly if the pitch shows signs of being slow in pace or offering some spin.
“Graeme bowled nicely in the Standard Bank Series (against Australia) and he’s a big man so bowling off-spin comes quite easily for him because he doesn’t have to throw the ball up to get it above the batsman’s eye-line,” said Pollock.
“He’s working on his control and that’s improving but he’s definitely an option for us.”
The West Indies have confirmed their eleven for the match, and with a fully fit squad to pick from they have left out Ryan Hinds, Runako Morton and Corey Collymore.
It means Hooper will go into the match with a three-pronged pace attack of Vasbert Drakes, Mervyn Dillon and Pedro Collins, with himself, Chris Gayle and Mahendra Nagamootoo providing the spin bowling options.
Gayle will open the batting with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, while Wavell Hinds will bat at number six.
The West Indies players will wear black armbands during the match as a mark of respect for all-rounder Laurie Williams, who died in a car crash in his native Jamaica on Sunday. Williams played 15 one-day internationals, the most recent of them in 2001.
Teams:
South Africa (from) - Shaun Pollock (captain), Dale Benkenstein, Nicky Boje, Mark Boucher, Alan Dawson, Boeta Dippenaar, Allan Donald, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Makhaya Ntini, Justin Ontong, Jonty Rhodes, Graeme Smith.
West Indies - Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Vasbert Drakes, Mervyn Dillon, Pedro Collins; 12th man Ryan Hinds.
Umpires: David Shepherd and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. Third Umpire: Daryl Harper. Fourth Umpire: Russell Tiffin. Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle.—Reuters
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