DURBAN, Feb 28: Western Province left-arm seamer Charl Willoughby has been called up to help South Africa prepare for their crunch Group ‘B’ match against Sri Lanka on Monday.

Willoughby has been brought in as a net bowler to help Shaun Pollock’s batsmen get ready to face in-form left-arm fast bowler Chaminda Vaas.

South Africa have to beat Sri Lanka to progress to the Super Six stage after losing to West Indies and New Zealand.

Durban is traditionally a seamer-friendly pitch and Vaas has already shown he is in superb form, claiming an unprecedented hat trick with the first three balls of the match against Bangladesh. Vaas and Pakistan’s Wasim Akram are the tournament’s joint top wicket takers with 12.

Willoughby has played once for South Africa in One-day Internationals, taking two for 39 in 10 overs against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1999-2000. He is widely regarded as being unlucky not to have played more after consistently impressing for domestic one-day champions Western Province.

The South African squad landed in Durban on Friday after an unconvincing 118-run win over Canada in East London. They were greeted by clear blue skies and the prospect of more good weather over the weekend.

The South Africans will have been relieved to hear that Tropical Storm Japhta, currently in the Mozambique channel to the north, is not expected to make land in the Durban area but to peter out over Zimbabwe.

The local weather bureau forecast a partly cloudy and humid day on Monday, with a 20 percent chance of showers disturbing the day-night match against the Sri Lankans later in the evening.—Reuters