AFG vs SL 7th Match Prediction

AFG vs SL Team Previews

Afghanistan

Batting was always going to be the biggest concern for Afghanistan in World Cup 2019 and that is exactly what caused their loss in the first match. Up against a strong Australian bowling unit, the Afghan opening pair was back in the hut within the first eight balls of the match.

It was always going to be tough for Afghanistan to recover from that start and even though Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, and Gulbadin Naib fought bravely, they could not get a defendable total on the board.

Against Sri Lanka, the Afghan batsmen are going to be up against one of the weakest bowling sides in the cricket world cup. Lasith Malinga is a shadow of himself while Suranga Lakmal and Isuru Udana do not have the extra pace to rattle the Afghan batsmen.

We expect Mohammad Shahzad and Hazratullah Zazai to come hard at the Sri Lankan bowlers. They have the best chance of being successful in this match where the bowling is ordinary. There is no denying the fact that Afghanistan’s batting lineup is a bit short of quality.

They struggled to play out the fifty overs against Australia and some early wickets are always going to be tough for them to recover from. Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi are the two batsmen we think can bat for a long period of time without getting impatient.

Hamid Hassan was quite impressive against Australia but the other bowlers struggled. Afghanistan could look at including a batsman in place of someone like Mujeeb ur Rahman to give them some cushion during the batting but they may not want to change their strategy so early.

Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, and even Dwalat Zadran are going to be much more effective with the batsmen looking to attack them rather than just knocking the ball about for singles.

This is Afghanistan’s best chance to win a match in the ICC World Cup 2019 and they will be aware of this. Hopefully, it should not cause them to veer away from their natural game.

Sri Lanka

No one has given Sri Lanka a chance coming into the cricket world cup 2019 and it seems to be a fair assessment. There has been too much of turmoil in the camp with changing captains, new personnel coming into the squad last minute, and a terrible run of defeats leading up to this tournament.

Sri Lanka was blown away by New Zealand in the first match. Their batsmen could only score 136 and they ended up losing the match by 10 wickets with 33.5 overs remaining. It is going to be difficult for Sri Lanka but they must somehow find a way to win this match.

If Sri Lanka loses this match to Afghanistan then we can honestly see them going through the entire tournament without getting a single win to their name.

Sri Lanka has won just one out of its last fifteen matches but we still believe the Sri Lankan batting is not that bad. They came up against a talented bowling attack on a green surface. Afghanistan certainly does not have the bowling quality that New Zealand does.

Sri Lanka also has a number of talented batsmen that just need to hit the right form to be a threat in the world cup. Kusal Perera was looking in great touch against New Zealand before he got out and Dimuth Karunaratne also scored a century.

The pitch at Cardiff was quite green for the match against New Zealand and it is understandable that a side may lose some quick wickets. This does not make players like Kusal Mendis and Angelo Matthews bad players.

Sri Lanka is not going to be taking Afghanistan lightly. They have lost to them in recent times and have also suffered other defeats to teams like Bangladesh at home. All of this should ensure that they are at their most vigilant while playing against Afghanistan.

The bowling for Sri Lanka is a big problem. They don’t have the pace bowlers to really trouble the batsmen but can utilize any swing that might be present. The spinners are also far from world-class. They will need to wait on the opposition to make mistakes and self-destruct rather than running through the sides to gain an advantage.