We have our first knockout match of the Asia Cup on Thursday when Group B concludes with the clash between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Dubai. We already know that Afghanistan will come out of this group and here we find out who joins them.
Both of these teams have lost to Afghanistan in this tournament so the equation is a pretty simple one here. Win and you go into the Super Fours. Lose and that is you done and confidence ahead of the T20 World Cup later in the year gets dented.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh arrived at the tournament in the middle of a poor run of form in the 20 over game and you would have to say it didn’t really improve in that opening match. They were pretty well held by Afghanistan throughout the match and although they got themselves into a winning position, when their opponents said go the Tigers had little answer and were probably beaten a little easier than it looked in the final score.
If Bangladesh are going to improve to continue in this tournament and perhaps even put up a challenge at the T20 World Cup later in the year they will simply have to put up more runs with the bat. Their innings in the opening game was very timid and this isn’t a format for that. To give them some slack they might have needed a run out in the conditions but this has been an ongoing issue for a while and one which needs sorting.
Sri Lanka
Any confidence or optimism that Sri Lanka carried into the tournament would have been wiped out in that opening game where they weren’t just beaten by Afghanistan but absolutely demolished by them. I always think truly brutal defeats like that one aren’t necessarily a bad thing as quite often professional pride comes into play and there is a response. It is almost like there is an embarrassment about such a defeat and no sportsman likes that feeling.
Sri Lanka were pretty much beaten inside the first two overs against Afghanistan and it goes without saying that they need a much better start from their top order in this match if they are to have a chance. What was more of a concern was that none of their bowlers could contain the Afghanistan batters, although to be fair to them they were defending very little and the batters could have a day out. A real overall improvement is needed here.
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Team News
Sri Lana are expected to ask the same team to go out and perform much better in this match but their problem is that their batting isn’t balanced so it might be that they make a change to that with Ashen Bandara coming in.
Bangladesh also have top order problems but whether they have the players within their squad to do anything about it remains to be seen. The likelihood is that they will be unchanged and trust the players to come on for the run.
Betting
There are too many flaws in both of these teams to bet on this match with comfort so I’m going to leave the result of it alone, especially when you consider the knockout element to it and instead I’ll take one from the side markets. I suspect Sri Lanka will have too much power with the bat and come out on top in this one but I’m not rushing to back a side who have just been absolutely taken to the cleaners.
There is a Sri Lanka player I’m happy to support here though and regular readers will not be surprised to hear that it is Wanindu Hasaranga. Hasaranga wasn’t at his most influential in the opening game but he had nothing to work with in terms of runs to defend so you would imagine if this is a much better overall showing from Sri Lanka he will come into his own. He has a performance line for this match of just 38.5 which means a couple of wickets will do the job. Bangladesh lost six wickets to spin in their opening match so there is a good chance of a couple from Hasaranga but even if he fails to get there he is a decent batter and when you put it all together I like him to cover here.
Tips
Back W.Hasaranga’s Performance – Over 38.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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