The T20 series between Ireland and Afghanistan continues in Belfast on Thursday when the two nations meet for the second time of the scheduled five matches on what is set to be another scorching day in the capital of Northern Ireland.
The home side drew first blood on Tuesday and will be looking to go two up with three to play here. Afghanistan will look to level the series and keep it competitive for as long as possible to help both teams in their preparation for the T20 World Cup.
Ireland
Ireland went into the series having competed against some of the bigger nations in the T20 format so when they faced lesser company as far as the rankings are concerned it looked like their best opportunity to get a win on the board. That can sometimes bring a different pressure to the table but if it did their players didn’t show it as they eased to their first T20 win of the summer. The task for them now is to back that up and if possible improve where they can.
There was still that weakness of their death bowling which was exposed in the opening game, although the Afghanistan lower order didn’t have the quality to expose it quite as brutally as the likes of India, New Zealand and South Africa were able to. The good thing is that Ireland were chasing which is probably their best method of victory these days but that bowling remains a concern. This will be their ninth T20 of the summer and there are no signs of rectifying it yet.
Afghanistan
When you consider they hadn’t played a game in Ireland prior to the opening match of the series, Afghanistan put up a creditable showing and certainly one which if they can build on they can win matches against this Ireland team. If you were being critical of them then you could argue it took them a little time to build up steam with the bat and then every time they looked like they had it cracked they lost a wicket which set them back again.
A lot of that was being new to the conditions and having had an outing now I expect them to show natural improvement. The surprising thing was how expensive they were with the ball. Two key bowlers is Mujeeb and Mohammad Nabi only bowled three of their four over allocation and that feels like a mistake. Naveen bowled a maiden and still went for more than 10 an over so he needs to tighten up a little bit here too.
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Team News
Ireland played the same XI that finished the series against South Africa so they seem to recognise this as their best team so it would be a surprise if they make any changes while the series is still a competitive force.
Fazalhaq Farooqi was a little expensive without taking a wicket in the opening game so if Afghanistan want to make changes then he could be one who is a little vulnerable. Teams tend to resist changes early in series these days though.
Betting
Afghanistan didn’t really get going with the bat in that opening match and yet there were still 43 boundaries so I have to think we are going to get a 37.5 line covered in this one. I’m not suggesting Afghanistan were terrible with the bat in hand but there was no momentum in their innings until the very end and one or two of their bigger hitters seemed to struggle with their timing which should be sorted now they have had a hit in the conditions.
The positive thing was that this line was covered in the opening game with Rashid Khan only conceding two boundaries so even if he bowls another tight spell we can still get this line in. Both teams bat very deep. Rashid Khan walked out at eight in the opening match while Ireland had Andy McBrine down at number nine on the scorecard in that first offering. I expect the pitches to slow down in the back end of the series but for now they should still be good for batting and we know the outfield is going to be firm and fast. It screams more boundaries to me.
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