Other News
Philander out for up to 10 days─── 08:36 Tue, 24 Feb 2015
The Proteas will be without the services of seamer Vernon Philander for anywhere between a week and 10 days following his hamstring injury.
Big Vern sustained a grade one hamstring strain during the sides disappointing 130 run loss to India on Sunday in Melbourne.
The player managed just four overs in the crucial match before leaving the park.
Sources close to OFM who are traveling with the team revealed that Kyle Abbott will likely replace Philander for the match against the West Indies on Friday, while Farhaan Berhardien will replace Wayne Parnell in the side.
Meanwhile, the West Indies won the toss this morning and elected to bat first against Zimbabwe in Canberra.
Both sides entered the encounter with a lot of confidence following good win in their previous matches, however Zimbabwe would have had the first laugh after Tinashe Panyangara bowled Dwayne Smith out with just the second ball of the match to give our northern neighbours the early ascendancy.
However Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels dug their heels in to steady the Caribbean’s ship and led the side to 202 for 1 after 39 overs.
At the time Gayle was on 121 not out for this first ton in 20 matches and Samuels was on 71 not out.
Windies captain, Jason Holder is of the view that with tighter bowling and a few more contributions down the order with the willow could make his side one of the teams to beat.
South Africa and the Windies face each other at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
Meanwhile, in Queensland the Irish are preparing for their second match of the tournament when they take on the United Arab Emirates tomorrow.
The men from the Emerald Isles are rearing to go after a long turnaround between their first and second matches.
Captain William Porterfield says his lads are looking forward to try and make it two from two after shocking the Windies last week.
After pushing Zimbabwe really hard in their opening match, Khurram Khan, captain of the Hawks of Quraish said they will be looking to improve their fielding against the Irish.
Tomorrow morning’s match at the Gabba gets underway at 5:30
Morgan Piek / OFM News
Listen to the Cricket World Cup morning wrap - 24 February:
