Both the team suffered heavy defeats in their opening match and will be looking for a comeback when they meet each other on 4th June 2019 at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. The match will be live from 3:00 pm IST. A cracker contest may be expected as both of the team will be eager to register their first win of the tournament.
Afghanistan lost their first match against Australia by 7 wickets. Batting has always been the concern for the team even in the first match the openers departed at the duck. Even though the team’s middle order did well and put a defendable total on the board. Hamid Hassan was quite impressive against Australia but the other bowlers struggled. Team has the best chance to register a win in the tournament as they are going against one of the weakest team of the tournament. Mohammad Shahzad and Hazratullah Zazai will be expected to provide a good start to the inning. Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan need to take wickets for the team to do well against Sri Lanka.
Player To Watch Out For – Mohammad Nabi
Sri Lanka was blown away by New Zealand in the first match. Their batsman could manage only 136 runs and were all out within 30 overs. Karunaratne played well who managed to stay till the end of the inning and scored a 52 runs knock. Sri Lanka has won just one out of its last fifteen matches but still Sri Lankan batting is not that bad and will be looking for a bounce back against Afghanistan. The bowling for Sri Lanka is a big problem. Even the team was not able to take a wicket in their first match and lost the match by 10 wickets. Kusal Mendis and Angelo Matthews need to bat till the end with Karunaratne. Bowling will depend a lot on the performance of Malinga and Lakmal.
Player To Watch Out For – Dimuth Karunaratne
Pitch Report And Condition
The pitch in Cardiff was a bit green and is going to provide movement when the conditions are overcast. The weather forecast is not good at all for Cardiff on match day and plenty of rain is expected.
Probable Line Ups ( Playing XI )
Afghanistan – Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib (c), Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hamid Hassan.
Sri Lanka – Lahiru Thirimanne, Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Kusal Perera (wk), Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis/Jeffrey Vandersay, Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga.
My PlayerzPot XI
PlayerzPot Prediction
The prediction is for Afghanistan to win the match as Sri Lankan side look week in comparison to Afghans.
