One huge loss is all it takes to edge closer to elimination in this format of the tournament. Bangladesh, under intense pressure in the game against Afghanistan, came up with a scintillating performance with the bat to shift that pressure onto their opponents. And now, Afghanistan are under the pump and are in need of a Herculean effort with both bat and ball to progress to the Super Four.
It will be no easy task given Sri Lanka themselves are in good form despite missing some key bowlers. Sri Lanka breezed past Bangladesh to currently top the group and will have to avoid a huge defeat in this encounter to progress into the Super Four.
Following their win over Afghanistan, Bangladesh are almost through to the Super Four. Even if Afghanistan manage to win by a huge margin to topple Bangladesh in terms of NRR, it will be Sri Lanka who will be under the pump as their NRR would likely fall below Bangladesh’s. This three-way tussle is extremely close, but in reality, two out of those three teams are the favourites to go through.
If Sri Lanka end up posting 300, Afghanistan will have to chase it down with almost 19 overs to spare to go past Bangladesh’s NRR. And if Afghanistan end up making 300 with the bat by batting first, the margin of defeat will have to be at least 127 runs. Both these tasks are no mean feat.
These two sides did face off as recently as in June and even though Afghanistan won the opening ODI, Sri Lanka staged a strong comeback to thrash their opponents in the next two to seal the series. In that final ODI in particular, they just blew away their opponents in style with the ball and Afghanistan would be wary of that.
However, it’s their performance with the ball against Bangladesh that would concern them. Both Mujeeb ur Rahman and Rashid Khan ended up conceding runs at over six an over. They will back themselves to bounce back against a batting line up that stuttered to chase down a 160-plus target just a few days ago but how much burden will they have to shoulder to turn their fortunes around is the question.
Afghanistan Probable XI:Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Sri Lanka Probable XI: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis (wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (c), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana
(Cricbuzz)
