Destabilized SL seek resurgence

After being comprehensively beaten on all three fronts in their opening game against New Zealand, Sri Lanka will hope for a much improved performance against dark horses Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka did not have the ideal start to their ICC World Cup 2019 campaign, as they lost by 10 wickets to New Zealand.

None of the batsmen could support captain Dimuth Karunaratne, who carried his bat with an unbeaten 52, as Sri Lanka folded for 136.

Their bowlers, despite having very little to play with, also proved ineffective, finishing wicketless as New Zealand sealed the chase in 16 overs.

Sri Lanka’s batting unit has now failed to last the full 50 overs on two separate occasions, including once in the warm-ups, and will have to pull itself up against a well-rounded Afghanistan attack.

Likewise, Karunaratne will expect his fast bowlers to exploit the conditions, and the opposition’s weakness against the moving white ball early in the innings.

Afghanistan might’ve gone down to Australia in their opening game in Bristol, but will back themselves to bounce back against Sri Lanka. Their openers both bagged ducks against Australia, but have shown match-winning capabilities in the past.

Afghanistan were shored up by lower order contributions against Australia, which was a great positive, but skipper Gulbadin Naib would hope someone from the top order can hold the innings together.

On the bowling front, Hamid Hasan, who produced a disciplined opening spell against Australia, will relish the overcast conditions.

“We have to say the first two games are very crucial to give all the players and the team a boost,” said 36-year-old Mendis. “We hope we can pull something out of the bag in the next games. The format is good. For all the teams to play each other is great and it gives us lots of chances to get the five wins you need to get to the semifinals.

“As a batting group, we need to at least put scores of 270, 280 on the board. Hopefully the wickets dry up and our pace and spin variation come into play.

“It’s all about our confidence and a few batsmen can get in and play an anchor role, we’ll be able to bat around them and play well.”

His Afghan counterpart, Gulbadin Naib, was hoping for rain. Tomorrow we just see what’s the weather. If we can reduce the overs it will be much better for us.”