After a thrilling encounter between Ireland and United Arab Emirates today, there is another mouth watering clash between the associates in store for all the cricket lovers. It is Afghanistan and Scotland who meet in Dunedin tomorrow, which would be their third game in the competition.
Both of them have lost their first two games. Afghanistan lost heavily their first game to Bangladesh whereas in their second game, which could have gone either way, they made the seasoned Lankans run for their money. Scotland, on the other hand have made low scores in both their games, one playing first and one playing second. In their first game against the New Zealand, they did give some scare to New Zealand claiming 7 wickets in defending their total. Against the out of form England, they were outplayed courtesy Moeen Ali's century.
When they meet tomorrow, it is the "first win" in the world cup that is at stake. Afghanistan are playing their first world cup whereas Scotland is playing its third edition. Both of them have not won any match so far in the world cup. However both of them have come across each other quiet a number of times in the past. Both know their games very well and the contest could be very similar to what we saw between Ireland and UAE.
Both these teams have played in Dunedin earlier in this tournament and will have happy memories of the same. It was here where Scotland took 7 Kiwi wickets in defending a meager total. When Afghanistan were here, they came close to cause an upset against Sri Lanka. So both the teams must be aware of the surface here. Last time they played here, it assisted the seamers for both the teams and both the teams have the seamers to exploit these condition. That will make the contest more interesting.
The seam attack of Afghanistan - Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran and Hamid Hassan have been bowling pretty well upfront. It is their inability to repeat the same towards the late middle overs and towards the end that is causing them more problem. So, Scotland's plan should revolve around this aspect of Afghanistan. Their batting lineup has not fired so far, apart from some performances that just saved them some embarrassment to say the least. If they can negotiate the early phase of Afghanistan bowling, then they can put pressure on Afghanistan. Afghanistan should try to be as accurate as possible upfront against the Scottish batsmen, who are already under pressure to perform.
Afghanistan's batting was far from impressive against Bangladesh but they showed tremendous resolve against a much better Sri Lankan attack to put on a modest total. But they still struggle to pace their innings, not knowing when to score and how much to score. Scotland's bowling struggled against England, Moeen Ali to be in particular. They may be under pressure conceding a 300+ score. So, Afghanistan's batting will have to take advantage of this situation. On the other hand, if Scotland dries the Afghan scoring upfront, then they will be under tremendous pressure. Majid Haq could play a crucial role here.
Mirwais Ashraf has been ruled out after the injury which forced him off the field against Sri Lanka. It would be interesting to see if they replace him with another seamer in Aftab Alam or they bring in opener Usman Ghani to strengthen their batting.
In both the games played so far, Scotland had only 4 specialist bowlers and the fifth bowler combination of Berrinton, Machan and Coetzer proved to be expensive against England. It would be interesting to see if they bring in a specialist bowler. Evans who came in place of Taylor may still retain his place as he bowled exceptionally against England. They could also retain Coleman who came in for Gardiner.
Whatever be the spirit that they display against the full members, however close they may take the full members to the line (on their day, they could find themselves on the other side of line) but both Afghanistan and Scotland would know that this is their best chance to get into the history books registering their first win in the world cup. It is this single point that will make them go all out tomorrow and will make the match interesting for us.
*Image: courtsey Star Sports
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