South Africa get first point of World Cup after match against West Indies called off

A struggling South Africa got their first point of the World Cup after their game against the West Indies was abandoned due to persistent rain here on Monday.

South Africa were 29 for two in the eighth over when rainstopped play at the Hampshire Bowl and intermittent showers meant no play waspossible for the rest of the game.

   

Both teams shared a point each for the called-off game,giving South Africa their first point of the tournament after threeback-to-back losses against England, Bangladesh and India.

The West Indies, who beat Pakistan before losing toAustralia, have three points from as many games.

The West Indies, who opted to bowl in overcast conditions,were on top before the rain arrived as pacer Sheldon Cottrell removed HashimAmla (6) and Aiden Markram (5) after the West Indies opted to bowl.

Quinton de Kock and captain Faf du Plessis were batting on17 and 0 when rain lashed the ground.

“Rain-affected matches are the worst. Both teams wanteda result, but you can’t control the weather. You want to start on a day liketoday without losing wickets – but they have a lot of strike bowlers up front,and they managed to get two wickets,” said du Plessis at the post-match interaction.

“It mostly suits a game batting second in arain-affected match. But even then, in a 30-35 over game, you can defend, butwe didn’t get anything get a game today.”

South Africa, who have been hit by injuries to their pacers,finally have something to cheer about with Lungi Ngidi set to make a comebackin their next game against Afghanistan on June 15.

“Lungi will be ready for the next match which isimportant for us – we are looking for a bowling attack that is as strong aspossible. We have Afghanistan next, so we need to put in a solid performanceand get some momentum there,” said du Plessis.

The West Indies had the upper hand before rain arrived.”We were in a good position today, but wecan’t control the weather. I guess we were hoping we would get a full daytoday, but nothing we can do about this so we have to move on and play well inthe future matches,” said captain Jason Holder.

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