CWC15 Preview - South Africa vs West Indies at Sydney

Sydney, Feb 26 (CRICKETNMORE) - Two times world champions West Indies will try to extend their winning streak when they take on cup favourites South Africa in a crucial cricket World Cup 2015 Pool B match at famous Sydney cricket Ground here Friday.

The Caribbean side was completely outplayed by the Proteas in a recently concluded 5 match ODI series on African soil. South Africa won the series by 4-1.

West Indies who suffered an embarrassing defeat from minnows Ireland bounced back in the tournament with two back to back victories against Pakistan and Zimbabwe .

Coach Stuart Williams Thursday said the side had learnt a lot from the recent South Africa series and believes the next meeting between the two sides can be different.

“The series against South Africa was more about learning about our game and where we need to go. We were playing the number one team in the world. Now it's not a series. It's just a one-off game in the World Cup. So it's a different mind-set, and we're prepared for Friday,” Williams pointed out.

“The guys have been (supporting each other), they have been working hard, they have been responding to my coaching and we’ve been doing fine up to this day.”

“We always stress on roles and achieving our goals in the team. Lendl Simmons has been doing well for us also, he has a hundred and a fifty in another game … (Denesh) Ramdin has been doing well and everybody has been chipping in and contributing, including (Darren) Sammy and (Andre) Russell,” Williams explained.

With Gayle in form, the West Indies will be even more confident of a positive result, and Williams said it was a plus seeing both Gayle and Samuels hit form at such a critical time in the tournament.

Bravo has been ruled out of consideration for the South Africa game, having failed to recover from a hamstring injury.

On the other hand, South Africa who lost their previous match against defending champions India are looking positive for upcoming matches..

"Things like that happen. We just want to brush it off, take the knock on our chin, and get our heads up for the next game," Amla said while speaking about match against India.

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