West Indies will be aiming to exploit South Africa's weakness in chasing down totals when they meet in a World Cup Super Eights match on Tuesday. Bangladesh's victory over South Africa on Saturday opened up the draw and handed Brian Lara's men a fighting chance to recover from three successive losses and make it to the semi-finals.
Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin said the hosts want to make the most of the opportunity handed to them. "There is a chance now where we can go out and win our next three games and be able to qualify for the semi-finals," Ramdin told reporters.
"As we have seen South Africa are not a good chasing side. If we go out and score 260-275 and put them under pressure and create some doubts in the batsmen's minds and then pick up a couple of early wickets, we can do the job."
West Indies looked to be in complete disarray when they lost their opening Super Eights games to Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
But Ramdin said the players had learnt some lessons from observing South Africa's defeat by Bangladesh. "A few of us watched it in the hotel. You look at the key areas where South Africa faltered and take those points in to the game," he said.
"The batters looked like they wanted the ball to come on to the bat a lot more and they couldn't get momentum going."
South Africa struggled against Bangladesh's slow bowlers and although West Indies do not have a specialist spin bowler in their side, Ramdin believes that the off-spin of batsmen Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels could be vital.
'KNUCKLE DOWN':
"Probably they will have a big part to play in this game. Bangladesh had three spinners and they tied down South Africa, hopefully our spinners can do it as well," he said.
The crucial factor the hosts have been focusing on since their dismal defeat to Sri Lanka has been the need to get more runs out of their higher order batsmen.
"Certainly the players realise that they have a lot of responsibility, especially up in the engine room the top four - our top four hasn't really clicked throughout this tournament," said West Indies' Australian coach Bennett King.
"When sides do well you usually find that one of the top four is scoring a hundred. Look at the sides that are doing well that is what is happening. "There is no secret to it, we have just got to knuckle down, put our heads down and apply ourselves better and make the right decisions."
King's charges have been quiet in training with little noticeable banter among the players but the coach said that did not mean there was an absence of camaraderie and team-spirit.
"They are pretty quiet. Internally we have our characters and stuff but the mood around the camp has been excellent, it has been excellent all the way through," said King.
"The players are optimistic about our chances; the signs in the nets have been very good and from my perspective they have been quite energetic.
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