CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first in the sixth match of the 2023 Asia Cup Limited Overs Cricket Tournament Group ‘B’ fixture against Afghanistan at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday,Sept.5
Both teams went in with the same XI that featured in the previous encounter and a high-scoring contest is expected at this batting-friendly surface in Lahore.
In fact, recent history suggests that this is a batting-friendly venue with very little help for the spinners.
If any, the new ball might pose a few challenges and the batters will be vary of the fact that there are plenty of runs on offer if they can get past that testing phase.
Sri Lanka Skipper Dasun Shanaka said that they wanted to put up a good total after batting first and to ensure that they will have enough runs on the board to defend under lights.
“Runs on the board are always handy. We have played some good cricket in this tournament. We need to win this game, we need to do the right things with bat and ball because Afghanistan are a good side,” Shanaka stressed.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan have a daunting task to qualify for the Super Fours segment as they need to win this match by a big margin and also improve on their net run-rate (NRR).
“Honestly, we wanted to bowl first because the NRR is a big factor for us, so we wanted to chase. We will try our best to make good decisions and play positively. We are going with the same team,” Afghanistan Skipper Hshmatullah Shahidi stated.
The teams
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (Captain), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Sri Lanka: (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (Captain), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha and Matheesha Pathirana.
Umpires: Asif Yaqoob (Pakistan) and Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand).
Television Umpire: Langton Rusere (Zimbabwe).
Reserve Umpire: Masudur Rahman (Bangladesh).
Match Referee: David Boon (Australia).