Afghanistan have defeated the former World Champion. They can be a contender for the qualifiers. Afghanistan with the win by 7 wickets, are now at the Number five position on the points table.
Afghanistan is going to take on Netherlands in their next fixtures. The Dutch have defeated the tigers in their recent outing. Both the team were underdogs venturing into the tournament. Dutch have showed their caliber by defeating the might proteas. In the recent fixtures with Bangladesh. The team bowling unit displayed the nuances of bowling into the line and length with respect to the batters.
Afghanistan Playing XI: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen ul Haq.
Sri Lanka Squad: Kusal Mendis (c), Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Angelo Mathews, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushmantha Chameera.
Is it going to be a 1983 like situation for Afghanistan? It seems unlikely. But, the journalist at the time, disregarded Kapil Dev claim to win the World Cup. Hashmatullah Shahidi has just said “we will play good cricket and carry on our form onto the next match.”
The land of peshwas, is now the home ground for the Afghan batters. The trio (Hashmatullah Shahidi, Rahmat Shah & Azmatullah Omarzai) have scored fifties. The sense of maturity the top order batsmen showed was quite marvelous. They never looked out of control in the run chase.
The matches ahead after their encounter with the Dutch will be against New Zealand and South Africa. Both the team are in incredible form. South Africa needs one more win out of the three matches to qualify into the semis.
One the same line, Australia and New Zealand both have lost 2 fixtures out of 6. The Kiwis and Aussie in the points table are at Number 3 and Number 4 position. Both the teams, require to 2 matches out of the remaining 3. If they are able to do that, the top 4 teams qualifying to the semis will India, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The current top 4 team in the points table.
Although, if Afghanistan is able to win all of the 3 remaining matches. They might be able to qualify. But, the big question will be Net Run-Rate. The Aussie and the Kiwis and better run-rate compared to Afghanistan.
