West Indies tour of South Africa

1st Test Match: SA vs WI

Preview

The Windies side is all set to face off against South Africa for an action-packed cricket tour which includes 2 tests, 3 ODIs, and 3 T20Is. The first test match of the 2-match test series will begin on Tuesday, 28th February at 01:30 PM IST. This match is scheduled to take place at SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium, Centurion. Both teams are out of the race to qualify for the International Test Championship 2023’s final.

The Hosts SA lost 2 back-to-back Test series against England and Australia, respectively. The Proteas have not won any game from the last 5 tests played in recent times. The Caribbean side, on another side, won the 2-match series against ZIM which they played away from home. South Africa will be heading in the test as red-ball skipper for the Hosts after Dean Elgar steps down from the captaincy role.

Historically Centurion’s pitch has favoured fast bowlers, which is why both teams have solidified their pace attack for this series. It will be a huge task for batters to score runs and build a partnership on this pitch in front of fast bowlers. The 4th placed South African side in the test ranking wants to register a series win before the home crowd for the entire tour. After getting humiliated against Australia in the last test series, the Hosts team is looking forward to claiming a win against the 8th-placed West Indies side in the test rankings in home conditions. The first test from the West Indies tour of South Africa will start on Tuesday at Centurion.

The Proteas batters throughout the series failed before the Aussies attack. The team lost the first 2 test matches while managing to draw the 3rd one against the Aussies. The African gun bowler Kagiso Rabada was a lone warrior in the bowling unit to put pressure on opponents’ batters. Rabada took 11 wickets in the series at an average of 32.00 in the test series against Australia.

Home conditions always favour the home team mostly and the same for South Africa as well they have good records at Centurion. Their team’s batting unit looks solid for an upcoming series against Windies. The former skipper of the side Dean Elgar scored 445 runs in the last 10 tests, whereas the new skipper of the side Temba Bavuma scored 479 from the previous 7 games. The team’s bowling unit mainly depends on pacers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje.  The overall squad looks well-balanced, with good depth in the batting and bowling unit. SA just need to execute plans well on the ground in front of the Caribbean side on Tuesday. 

For the Visitors Windies, the left-handed opening batter is in some red-hot form currently for WI as Tagenarine Chanderpaul has shined in test format in the last series against ZIM. Chanderpaul scored 258 runs in the last 3 innings and became just the tenth player from the West Indies to convert his maiden Test hundred into a double-ton while playing against ZIM. He and the skipper of the side Kraigg Brathwaite are two prime batters for the team for the upcoming series against SA.

27-year-old left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie is a key bowler for West Indies who single-handedly dismantled Zimbabwe in the last series, taking 19 wickets to become a player of the series. With the experience of Kemar Roach, who has taken 23 wickets in the previous 8 matches, must deliver against Proteas batters on Centurion’s track. 

Windies has a good bowling attack for a tour to Proteas. They will try to continue the winning momentum ahead this series when they face a home team in the first match on Tuesday.

Match Details

Match: SA vs WI, 1st Test Match, Australia tour of India 2023

Date: Tuesday, 28 February - Saturday, 04 March

Time: 01:30 PM IST

Venue: SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium, Centurion

Pitch & Weather Report

The SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium has conducted 27 tests so far here. In the last 5 test matches, the team which batted first has won 4 times. Here the general trend is the winning captain chooses to bat first as the pitch favours bowlers in the 2nd innings. The ground accommodates 20,000 people and has conducted several international and domestic games.

The track here offers a bowler-friendly pitch. The seamers will have fun here due to the double-paced nature of the pitch. They will enjoy the good swing and bounce and can be seen troubling the batters. Teams would like to bat first as the pitch will deteriorate with time, and the average first innings score is 257 at SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium.

The maximum temperature will remain at 28°C, with a low of 18°C with 50% humidity, and a slow wind speed of 11 Km/hr for the first Test between South Africa and the West Indies on Feb 28-Mar 04. There is no rain expected for the course of this test match which will begin this Tuesday.

SA vs WI Squads:

SA: Temba Bavuma (c), Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton (wk).

WI: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Jermaine Blackwood (vc), Alick Athanaze, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Akeem Jordan, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach, Devon Thomas.

SA vs WI: Probable XIs

SA: Dean Elgar (c), Sarel Erwee, Heinrich Klaasen, Temba Bavuma, Khaya Zondo, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje

WI: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Raymon Reifer, Jermaine Blackwood, Kyle Mayers, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Kemar Roach

Match Prediction

SA and WI have met in 30 Test matches so far with Proteas winning 20 times and the Windies 3 times, while 7 Tests have ended in a draw. In Tests at home, SA won 12. The two sides have clashed at the SuperSport Park three times and the hosts have won on all three occasions. Even at the Wanderers, South Africa has won two of two against the Windies. We say SA to dominate this test match as they are playing in their home conditions.

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