Stats Preview: South Africa v West Indies

South Africa face West Indies on Thursday in what promises to be a fascinating contest.

 

By Dileep V

 

South Africa face West Indies in Delhi on Thursday in what promises to be a fascinating contest. CricketCountry looks at some of the statistical highlights.

 

South Africa and West Indies have met 50 times in ODIs, with South Africa winning 37 and West Indies triumphing 13 times. At neutral venues the disparity isn’t that much, with five wins for South Africa and three for West Indies. What’s really alarming is that since the last World Cup they have met ten times, and South Africa has won all of them. In four World Cup clashes, it’s two wins apiece though.

 

Kallis and Chanderpaul lead the way

 

Jacques Kallis leads the run tally with 1662 runs from 39 matches against the Windies, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul has amassed 1528 runs from 38 matches. Kallis’ average of 51.93 is six runs more than his career average.

 

For West Indies apart from Chanderpaul, only Ramnaresh Sarwan and Devon Smith average more than 40 with Smith having played only three matches against South Africa. Chris Gayle and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul are the only players in the present team to have scored a hundred against them. The major concerns are the three all-rounders – Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, all of them average in 20’s.

 

West Indies batsmen vs South Africa

 

Player	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	100s/50s
S Chanderpaul	38	1528	150	44.94	69.58	1/12
C Gayle	26	873	152*	36.37	83.54	3/1
R Sarwan	16	583	92	41.64	79.31	0/4
Dwayne Bravo	18	395	74	26.33	84.76	0/1
D Sammy	10	180	58*	22.50	118.42	0/2
K Pollard	6	144	44	24.00	100.69	0/0
Devon Smith	3	129	91	43.00	106.61	0/1
Darren Bravo	3	63	45*	31.50	75.00	0/0

 

South African batsmen relish playing against the West Indies. All their top order batsmen average in excess of 50, barring Graeme Smith. Smith’s average of 33.09 is considerably less than his overall ODI average of 39.84. Kallis has four centuries against them, while Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers have two each.

 

South Africa batsmen vs West Indies

 

Player	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	100s/50s
J Kallis	39	1662	139	51.93	77.77	4/12
G Smith	22	728	103	33.09	79.38	1/5
AB de Villiers	13	664	146	55.33	92.73	2/3
H Amla	5	402	129	80.4	101.25	2/1
J Duminy	7	325	79*	81.25	77.56	0/3
J Botha	4	48	24	12	67.6	0/0

 

 

Kallis a threat with the ball as well

 

Kallis being the leading wicket taker comes as no surprise since he has played the highest number of matches against Windies. His 42 wickets is way ahead of both Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn. Morkel and Steyn have played only seven matches and picked up 18 and eight wickets respectively. Morkel has better average and strike rate but has leaked 5.37 runs per over as against Steyn’s 4.99

 

Dwayne Bravo and Gayle have snapped 18 and 14 wickets respectively but with a very high average and strike rate. While Pollard is the only West Indies bowler to average around 25.

 

Records await

 

*Kallis is 77 runs short of getting to 1,000 runs in World Cup. He would become the second South African after Herschelle Gibbs to have gone past this milestone.

 

*Kallis requires 27 to reach 11,000 runs in ODIs for South Africa. He had scored 29 runs for ICC World XI and has  11,002 runs to his name.

 

*Chanderpaul is 144 runs short of getting to 1,000 runs in World Cup. He would become the third West Indian player after Viv Richards and Brian Lara to achieve this feat.

 

(Dileep.V is a Scouser fan, Sports freak, Movie buff, Laggard Quizzer and dreams of setting foot on Anfield one day)

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