Looming World Cup dwarfs fifth ODI

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

QUESTIONS were not in short supply at the press conference ahead of the last match of West Indies’ tour to SA on Wednesday, a one-day international at Centurion. However, straight answers were not as easily had.

“I’m not bothered about SA,” Darren Sammy said. “SA worries, let AB answer those questions.”

No doubt the gathered press would have asked them of AB de Villiers had he been behind the microphone. But De Villiers - along with Dale Steyn - will be rested on Wednesday. So Hashim Amla turned up.

What did he think SA’s weaknesses were heading into the World Cup in Australasia next month?

“I should ask the journalists; they generally pick those out,” Amla said.

Thanks, fellas, for nothing. But perhaps this is what happens when a series that was always going to be dwarfed by the looming World Cup is decided after three games, all of them won by SA.

“I don’t mind a series loss if we beat SA in the World Cup; that would be the perfect response,” Sammy said, making sure to add to the pressure SA are under having never won a knockout match at the tournament.

“I don’t think I have had a World Cup where SA have not been favourites,” Sammy said. “It’s no different this time.

“If you play three good matches in the first round, you are into the knockout stages and anything is possible.

“We all know when it comes to World Cup, once we get to knockout stages we tend to move on.”

Of their nine knockout games at the World Cup, West Indies have won six - including the finals in 1975 and 1979. Among their successes is a quarter-final win over SA in the 1996 tournament.

“If we win two (West Indies won the fourth ODI at St George’s Park on Sunday) and put SA’s bowlers under pressure, that could be a psychological edge going to the World Cup,” Sammy said.

Amla was quizzed on Farhaan Behardien’s role in SA’s World Cup squad. In two innings in the series Behardien has scored 24 runs. However, he took the important wickets of Denesh Ramdin and Marlon Samuels on Sunday, and he has a better economy rate in the rubber than JP Duminy, Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott.

“It’s unfortunate that he hasn’t got the runs that he would have liked to but no-one can argue with his credentials in domestic cricket,” Amla said. “He has been the best finisher in the game for the last few years for the Titans.

“With the ball, he has been uncanny with getting crucial wickets. He is a very wily bowler.”

Wednesday marks Quinton de Kock’s return from more than a month of inaction because of an ankle injury. In his 35 ODI innings, he has scored six centuries and featured in nine century stands - six of them with Amla.

So what, said Sammy: “Cricket is not about one person.”

But, sometimes, it is about the weather: Centurion faces a 72% forecast for thunderstorms on Wednesday.