Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka CWC 2023

The Pune cricket stadium will witness the 30th match of the 2023 Cricket World Cup on 30 October 2023. This is going to be an adrenaline-pumping match between the emerging Afghanistan side and the Lankan side. Are you excited about this match and want to know all the ins and outs of this game? You have come to the right place, my friend. Match preview, highlights, commentary, and whatnot, you will get everything.

Read: ICC Cricket World Cup points table 2023

Match preview – Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka Cricket World Cup

Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune
Match	Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka
Position on the points table	Sri Lanka = 5th Afghanistan = 7th
Match number	30
Starting time	2 pm IST
Date	30 October 2023

Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan live-streaming

And if you want to enjoy the live streaming, you can read our article. We have detailed the avenues that you can use to enjoy this cricket World Cup. Come on, man, it ain’t costing you anything. All we need is some appreciation 🙂

Read: ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Live Streaming

Pitch report

Pune is the place where you can see some high-scoring matches. However, the spinners get some help from here. This means business for both teams. They have brought quality spinners for this tournament. And the batters are in form as well. Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera are scoring runs. While Zadran and Gurbaz aren’t behind anyone when it comes to batting.

Win the toss and bat first here.

Key Players

Afghanistan: Afghanistan squad for ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023

From the Afghanistan side, Rashid Khan and the opening batters will play a huge role. However, you must watch out for Rashid Khan in this game. Sri Lanka is very proud of its top order right now. And Rashid seems to be one of the only bowlers who can eliminate them. But the dark horse of this match can be Noor Ahmad. He was instrumental in getting Paksitan’s key batters out.

Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka Squad for World Cup 2023

In the Lankan camp, Kusal Mendis can get quite aggressive with the bat. He couldn’t score in some of the previous matches. A bombastic innings is brewing. You can smell it. That is why Sri Lanka has won all these previous ODI matches. But who can be the dark horse for the Sri Lankan team? Well, it is about time Maheesh Theekshana shifts gears as well.

Afghanistan’s exploits

Afghanistan has quite the tournament this year. From winning no matches, being a below-average team, and walking talking 2 points for other teams to winning against Pakistan and England, they have made giant leaps. It all started with Afghanistan’s win in the England vs Afghanistan CWC 2023 match. After that, it did give them the confidence that they could win matches against bigger sides. The previous win was in the Pakistan vs Afghanistan Cricket World Cup 2023 game.

Sri Lanka’s tournament so far

Sri Lanka got tipsy when they started their campaign this year. They lost 3 back-to-back matches against India, South Africa, and Pakistan. The Pakistan vs Sri Lanka CWC 2023 game went pretty close. However, Rizwan and Co made sure to chase the highest total they ever have in the history of this tournament. But that was it; it was not time to change. Sri Lanka won the game against the Dutch and the English side.

England is struggling, and you could argue that winning against them isn’t a big deal so far (yes, this English side has been disappointing; accept it and move on, buddy).

Let’s see what happens for the Lankans moving forward

Prediction

Sri Lanka has a higher chance of winning this match. They do find the Afghanistan side as their equals in spin bowling. However, Dilshan Madushanka can make a difference. Also, their batting is far superior to their opponents this time. Hence, the Lankans can enjoy a victory in this match. You never know!

Highlights

Afghanistan won the toss, and they have chosen to field first. It’s pretty surprising since this is a batting-friendly track. Are they trying to gain any advantage from the pacers?

Pathum Nissanka	Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Dimuth Karunaratne	Ibrahim Zadran
Kusal Mendis	Rahmat Shah
Sadeera Samarawikrama	Hashmatullah Shahidi
Charith Asalanka	Azmatullah Omarzai
Dhananjaya de Silva	Ikram Alikhil
Angelo Mathews	Mohammad Nabi
Dushmantha Chameera	Rashid Khan
Maheesh Theekshana	Mujeeb-ur-Rahman
Kasun Rajitha	Naveen-ul-Haq
Dilshan Madushanka	FazalHaq Farooqi

First Innings – Sri Lanka

SRI LANKA 241-10 (49.3 overs)
BATTING	BOWLING
Pathum Nissanka 46 (60)	Fazalhaq Farooqi 4-34
Kusal Mendis 39 (50)	Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2-38
Sadeera Samarawickrama 36 (40)	Rashid Khan 1-50
TARGET	242 runs in 50 overs

• Afghanistan put up an excellent performance, limiting Sri Lanka to 241 on a wicket devoid of demons.
• They wanted to bowl first, while Sri Lanka wanted to bat first; therefore, both teams won the toss. Fazalhaq, who was making his comeback, struck early by dismissing Dimuth Karunaratne.
• Nissanka and Kusal Mendis batted for 62 runs to steady the innings, but they never sought to overpower the bowlers. Shahidi utilized spinners in the middle stages and monitored the run rate.
• As the brilliant Mujeeb eliminated the well-established Mendis and Samarawickrama, the pressure generated worked like a charm.
• It also caused a collapse, with Sri Lanka falling from 134 for 2 to 185 for 7.
• Mathews and Theekshana sailed the Lankan boat to 240 runs. However, is this enough?

Second Innings – Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN 242-3 (45.2 overs)
BATTING	BOWLING
Azmatullah Omarzai 73 (63)	Dilshan Madushanka 2-48
Rahmat Shah 62 (74)	Kasun Rajitha 1-48
Hashmatullah Shahidi 58 (74)	Dushmantha Chameera 0-51
RESULT	Afghanistan won by 7 wickets at hand, with 28 balls remaining

• On a solid batting surface, 241 was never going to be enough, and when Sri Lanka picked out Gurbaz in the first over, the rest weren’t about to give up.
• Only Ibrahim Zadran fell short of a fifty, but the trio of Rahmat Shah, Azmatullah, and Shahidi accumulated the fifties to finish the chase with little difficulty.
• The Sri Lankan bowling was good in portions, but they didn’t have enough runs to apply the requisite rate pressure.
• Afghanistan has demonstrated pursuing mastery twice in a row. It was Pakistan a few days ago, now Sri Lanka.

Man of the match

This was a batting wicket, and it was FazalHaq’s bowling that restricted Sri Lanka’s runs and took their wickets. He was out of the squad, and many people, including me, didn’t anticipate his return since Noor was bowling so well. However, Farooqi came back with a bang, took a 4-fer, and stole the match from the Lankan clutches.