Biff, Pollock fear Proteas' one-sidedness over Windies far too easy ahead of WC

Johannesburg, Jan 22 (ANI): Expressing their concern over the one-sidedness of the current series between South Africa and West Indies, the former Proteas captains have claimed that it is far too easy in light of the team's quest to perform well at the Cricket World Cup 2015 next month. Both, Graeme Smith, who led SA at the respective 2007 and 2011 tournaments, and Shaun Pollock, who was at the helm for the home-staged event in 2003, raised their reservations during another painful ODI mismatch in East London on Wednesday. South Africa thrashed West Indies to charge to a nine-wicket victory, winning the five-match series 3-0, and with more than 25 overs to spare, Sport24 reported. South Africa had won the crazily high-scoring second game by almost as crushing a margin in runs terms, 148, just three days earlier at the Wanderers, and it was widely expected that the visitors would produce a grittier effort in the follow-up. However, the West Indies were probably only more lacklustre in the third ODI, and many of their batsmen self-destructed awfully en route to a rank insufficient total of 122 which had the knock-on effect of making their bowlers uninspired to try to defend it and fielders still clumsy and error-prone. Nevertheless, both Smith and Pollock have some well-meaning reservations about the whipping South Africa are giving the increasingly motley West Indian tourists. Smith said that the South Africans need to be pressured much more in the lead-up to the World Cup, pointing out that they aren't being properly stretched at key times either at the crease or in the field right now. Pollock, meanwhile, weighed in by saying that the series was taking on a counter-productively soft texture in terms of preparing the country for tough challenges at the World Cup. (ANI)