The final group match of the Asia Cup is a repeat of the final of two years ago but neither Pakistan nor Sri Lanka will progress beyond this match as both have had their fate sealed already.
The two sides have been very similar in this tournament. Both laboured and struggled past the UAE while both were surprised by Bangladesh and both were routed by India and the result of that means neither can now progress to Sunday’s final.
Pakistan have generally bowled really well in the competition save for Mohammad Sami’s penultimate over in what was becoming a cliff-hanger with Bangladesh earlier in the week. Their batting though has been woeful and that is the problem they need to repair before they get to India for the World T20.
You would think now that they are out of the tournament and this is the last official match before they begin their World T20 campaign that Pakistan will use this outing to test out the players who have largely been on the bench throughout this campaign. That means players like Imad Wasim and Wahab Riaz could come into the fray.
Sri Lanka have generally bowled well enough particularly when you think they had plans to have Lasith Malinga around for the entire tournament only for him to be lame after the first game. Just like Pakistan though they have batted terribly bar the odd individual performance here and there and that is a concern.
Given that this is a dead rubber it makes absolutely no sense to play Malinga in this match so Nuwan Kulasekara will continue to lead the attack. As with Pakistan it would be no surprise to see Sri Lanka test their bench strength which would mean the likes of Jeffrey Vandersay and Niroshan Dickwella could get a game.
These two sides are no strangers to each other. They have met 14 times in this format of the game with Pakistan claiming nine wins to Sri Lanka’s five. Pakistan have won three of the last four meetings but we must remember this is Pakistan we’re talking about. History and logic rarely matter where they are concerned!
To be fair based on what we’ve seen in this tournament I do think Pakistan will win this match. I think they’ve looked marginally the more solid with the bat and they are always tough to play with the ball but I can’t get away from the fact that this is a dead rubber and therefore I can’t be backing them especially at odds on.
Given that in the six innings the two have had in this tournament so far only one of them has involved them losing fewer than seven wickets and even in that innings Pakistan were three down early to UAE, the likelihood of both a low scoring match and one with a few wickets has to be high. With that I’ll go with over 13.5 wickets once again.
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