South Africa were in trouble by the time their World Cup clash against West Indies was interrupted by rain at at Hampshire’s Rose Bowl on Monday as they stood at 29 for the loss of two wickets.
The umpires ordered an early lunch as light rain continued to fall.
The Proteas had suffered an early blow after opener Hashim Amla fell to West Indies’ bowler Sheldon Cottrell in the third over of their World Cup clash. After five overs, the Proteas were 25 for the loss of 1 wicket.
Cottrell struck again three overs later and dismissed Aiden Markram.
Quinton de Kock was unbeaten on 17 and South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis was yet to get off the mark.
Earlier, West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and sent South Africa in to bat in the Cricket World Cup group game.
Holder said that he chosen to bowl first due to the “overhead conditions”.
“We’re expecting rain,” ESPN Cricinfo quoted him as saying.
He admitted that “Australia loss hurt but [there is] no point dwelling on it”.
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said that he would have made the same choice as Holder for the same reasons, had he won the toss.
“We were also looking to bowl first with the nature of the weather but we assume the whole day we’ll be playing in overcast conditions. We’ve played two of the biggest teams England and India, but it’s only week one. We’re not focusing on the negatives,” he was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo.
South Africa are coming off losses to England, Bangladesh and India and desperately need a win to get its campaign going. West Indies opened with a win over pakistan and then had defending champion Australia in trouble before losing the second game by 15 runs.
The Proteas will need to score quickly before the heavy rain predicted during the afternoon, hoping the run-rate is high when the West Indies try to chase a total.
The South Africans made two changes to the XI that lost to India last week, with all-rounder JP Duminy and wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi dropping in favour of paceman Beuran Hendricks and batsman Aiden Markram. Hendricks will be playing his first game since being drafted into the squad as injury cover.
The West Indies made one change to the lineup that lost to Australia, with Darren Bravo recalled to open the innings at the expense of Evin Lewis.
Chris Gayle and allrounder Andre Russell were cleared fit to play for the West Indies.
Teams
South Africa: Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), Faf du Plessis (c), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir, Beuran Hendricks
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Jason Holder (c), Carlos Brathwaite, Ashley Nurse, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas.
