kieron pollard
Kieron Pollard is a key player for the West Indies in the shorter format of the game Getty

West Indies take on South Africa in the first match of the Tri-Nation series at Providence Stadium, Guyana on 3 June (Friday).

Where to watch live

Match starts at 6pm BST/10.30pm IST. Live coverage of the game is available on Sky Sports 5 and Sky Sports 5 HD in the UK.

Overview

West Indies and South Africa start their packed summer of cricket, facing off in a Tri-Series Nation tournament also featuring Australia. The hosts who are currently eighth in the ICC ODI Team rankings come into this tournament on the back of a victorious T20 campaign where they won their second T20 World Cup in India.

The team, however, are missing key players in Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy and Dwayne Bravo who have been dropped from the squad while Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine have been selected. Pollard has been absent from the ODI squad for a long time due to injury and lack of form. He has now been recalled to the team for the first time in almost two years.

The Windies will need their experienced international players like Marlon Samuels, Narine and Pollard to fire consistently if they are to go ahead and clinch the trophy.

Their opponents, South Africa, had a disappointing ICC T20 World Cup, crashing out in the group stages. With the squad at their disposal they should be doing so much better; in fact, they should be competing for top honours.

In AB De Villiers, they have in Virat Kohli's words the best batsman on the planet. Add to that the supporting cast of Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla and JP Duminy, and the Proteas have one of the best batting line-ups in the world.

Morne Morkel will lead the attack in place of Dale Steyn, who was originally rested only for him to sign up to play county cricket. It will also be interesting to see how left-arm chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi copes after impressing in the recently concluded IPL 2016.

Prediction

South Africa to win

Betting odds (betfair)

  • West Indies to win: 17/10
  • South Africa to win: 4/9

Team news

West Indies

Squad: Jason Holder (c), Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Shannon Gabriel, Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor.

South Africa

Squad: AB de Villiers (c), Kyle Abott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi.

West Indies cricket South Africa cricket