Off-colour Taylor out
Vinode Mamchan
Published: Guardian
Sunday, June 19, 2016
The West Indies will go into the final leg of the Ballr Tri-series without senior fast bowler Jerome Taylor, who has been dropped due to poor form. The regional selectors headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd have decided against naming a replacement, as the squad is now down to 13 for the remainder of the series.
After a win and a loss in the last leg in St Kitts the West Indies find themselves at the bottom of the standings on eight points, two behind leaders South Africa and second place Australia.
They will fine tune their preparations for their final two league matches on Tuesday against Australia and Saturday against South Africa, over the next few days in Barbados.
With Taylor out, T&T fast bowler Shannon Gabriel who is yet to play could get a run on the quicker Kensington Oval track. The West Indies find themselves in a position where they need to get two wins to make sure they qualify for the finals. They can qualify with one win but this would require the team they beat, also losing their other game.
Skipper Jason Holder was not a happy man of their 138-run hammering at the hands of South Africa in the last game and is calling for a much improved performance in the final leg in his home town.
Aussies clash with Proteas today
Meanwhile, the Tri-series continue today with Australia and South Africa meeting in a crucial tie at 1 pm at Kensington Oval. Both teams have beaten each other once in the series so far and a win for either will guarantee them a place in the finals as they both have ten points due to gathering bonus points victories over the West Indies earlier in the series.
The Australians will be keenly looking at the fitness of captain Steven Smith and will hope he can take his place in the line-up. In the loss against the West Indies, Smith tweaked his quadriceps and missed the last two training sessions. Should he miss out, he will be replaced by George Bailey as captain and Glenn Maxwell will come into the starting XI.
The pitch at Kensington Oval has some grass on it and it is expected to hold together nicely to make batting a pleasure. However, bowlers’ efforts will be rewarded so the contest should be an intriguing one.
Teams
South Africa: Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers (capt), JP Duminy, Farhaan Behardien, Wayne Parnell, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Imran Tahir.
Australia: Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith (capt), George Bailey, Mitchell Marsh, Travis Head, Matthew Wade (wk), James Faulkner, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
STANDINGS
Teams P W L NR T PTS NNR
S Africa 4 2 2 0 0 10 +0.697
Aussie 4 2 2 0 0 10 +0..416
WI 4 2 2 0 0 8 -1.189
West Indies team
Jason Holder (capt), Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Shannon Gabriel, Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels.
www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2016-06-19/colour-taylor-out
