We have a couple of days of dead rubbers in the Cricket World Cup on Thursday with the first of them coming from Headingley as Afghanistan look to pick up a sole win before they exit the tournament. They take on a West Indies side who also play their last match of the competition here.
Both teams have had disappointing World Cup campaigns but can leave the tournament on a high with a win here, something you sense would mean a lot more to Afghanistan than it would to West Indies at this moment in time.
AllSportsBetting Podcast
Kev and Steve are back with the latest edition of the AllSportsBetting Podcast which looks into Afghanistan vs West Indies. The pair discuss whether the West Indies seem interested and all their bets for the match. Click play below to listen!
Afghanistan
To be winless at this stage of the competition certainly wouldn’t have been the plan of Afghanistan but to be fair they have twice looked like picking up a win recently and on those efforts they would have to feel like they are in with every chance in this match. They should have beaten Sri Lanka early on in the tournament but didn’t, and couldn’t quite get over the line against either India or Pakistan despite trading odds on in both matches at one point.
The Pakistan loss is the one which will have disappointed them the most. They were in complete control of that match but let their opponents get away from them leaving them with this one last chance to pick up the desired win. Afghanistan are suddenly showing good quality with the bat and the ball so now all the need to do is ensure they hold their nerve in the key moments and then they could yet leave with their victory.
West Indies
A tournament that begun so well for West Indies has turned sour pretty quickly and they made it abundantly clear that they are done with the competition in their tame loss to Sri Lanka on Monday. Had it not been for Nicholas Pooran, who to his credit showed the required application, it would have been a landslide loss. As it was, it was still a defeat in a match which they were favourites to win and that should disappoint them, although with Rihanna the centre of attention they didn’t look too troubled by the beating.
You can often tell the state of a team and how they are feeling by the fielding effort they put in and that doesn’t bode well for West Indies because theirs was terrible last time out. Their bowling wasn’t a great deal better and in truth they looked like a team who just want to board the plane home now. Whether they can stump up enough motivation for a performance here remains to be seen.
Team News
Hamid Hassan looks like he has played his final match for Afghanistan as injury is set to rule him out of this contest. They could give a debut to Sayed Shirzad but who truly knows how their selection will go in advance?
Kemar Roach is said to be fit to take part in this match and given how he has bowled in the tournament so far it would be a surprise if he isn’t named in the starting XI. Shannon Gabriel is the man he is most likely to replace.
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Betting
I’ll go with three bets here with the first of them being on Afghanistan to beat West Indies. West Indies haven’t looked interested in the last couple of games. That loss to New Zealand looks like it has hit them for six and so I’m with Afghanistan here. They know they can beat West Indies because they did it twice in the qualifying competition for this tournament and they have got closer to a win throughout the tournament. The 30 overs of spin that they can send down could be massive in this match and so at 3/1 they are worth a bet here.
If there is going to be a West Indian go well it could be Sheldon Cottrell who has had a very good tournament. He has taken 12 wickets and one of the reasons for that is because he has bowled at the start of the innings and again at the death which is often where the cheaper wickets come along. He has a performance line of 32.5 here and that looks low to me. I think he could easily take two wickets here but if he doesn’t he has been a demon in the field and may well get a bat so there is a possibility he covers this line either with the ball or a combination of all three scoring methods. With that in mind I’ll play the over.
Finally a bet on Mujeeb-ur-Rahman may well be the order of the day when it comes to the top Afghanistan bowler. He was terrific in the narrow loss to Pakistan, taking 2/34 and he picked up 3/39 against Bangladesh prior to that so all of a sudden he is bowling very well. In the two qualifying matches these two played against each other Mujeeb took three wickets and four wickets, leading the Afghanistan bowling on both occasions. The 7/2 he does it again here looks a little too big to me.
Tips
Back Afghanistan to beat West Indies for a 3/10 stake at 4.00 with Betfred
Back them here:
Back S.Cottrell’s Performance – Over 32.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.67 with Bet365
Back M.ur Rahman Top Afghanistan Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 4.50 with Betfair
Back him here:
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