By Mikey Godsmark
Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have had very different build ups to this game. Afghanistan have come off the back of a very impressive qualification tournament in which they looked comfortable in all three of their games and obliterated full member Zimbabwe. In contrast Sri Lanka have been in awful form recently. Despite being reigning champions, they lost all three of their warm up games and lost all of their games at the Asia Cup except to the UAE.
Illness and a Geography fieldtrip have got in the way of my
daily preview but I return for Day Nine. After England’s shoddy bowling
performance let’s hope for a closer match.
Sri Lanka v
AfghanistanSri Lanka and Afghanistan have had very different build ups to this game. Afghanistan have come off the back of a very impressive qualification tournament in which they looked comfortable in all three of their games and obliterated full member Zimbabwe. In contrast Sri Lanka have been in awful form recently. Despite being reigning champions, they lost all three of their warm up games and lost all of their games at the Asia Cup except to the UAE.
After Afghanistan’s all round great qualifier they will be
keen to cause some upsets, tomorrow will perhaps present their best opputunity.
Shahzad is now ranked 8th in the World for T20Is (despite the fact
that when you click on his name on the lists on the ICC website it comes up
with the UAE Mohammad Shahzad, so village) and Zadran is 10th for
bowlers, so they must be doing something right. The spinners, Rashid Khan and
Nabi, are used to the conditions and looked extremely dangerous, there is turn
on offer as has been shown in the IPL in the past. Afghnaistan may not get a
better chance to explode onto the world stage as the door starts to slam shut
on them.
A Sri Lanka without Kumar Sangakkara is not a Sri Lanka to
be feared. They looked incredibly weak in the Asia Cup. In Bangladesh their
wickets came from the seamers not the spinners, their fate still may lie on the
shoulders of a Malinga who has been lacking for that extra pace in recent
matches. Despite this Afghanistan have not come up against a bowler of his
quality so far, if Shahzad holes out early as he is prone to do, there isn’t
too much in the team that could post or chase a 180 or above score line. Their
batting must come together if they are to stand a chance of defending their
trophy.
Prediction:
Afghanistan to win comfortably.
Powell's Perspective: Very close, Sri Lanka to edge it.
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