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Sri Lanka aim to bounce back against Afghanistan today

India begin their campaign against SA tomorrow as Aussies will take on WI on June 06


June 04, 2019 00:00:00


CARDIFF (Wales), June 03 (Agencies): Sri Lanka, who were comprehensively beaten by New Zealand in their opening game, will look to come out with a much improved performance when they take on dark horses Afghanistan in the ongoing World Cup at the Cardiff Wales Stadium here on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka did not have the ideal start to their World Cup campaign as they lost by 10 wickets to the Black Caps on June 1. None of their batsmen -- apart from skipper Dimuth Karunaratne who remained unbeaten at 52 -- could stand against the hostile bowling from the Kiwi pacers and were bundled out for 136. The bowlers also failed to come up with an inspiring performance and proved ineffective as New Zealand chased down the target inside 16 overs.

Karunaratne's men need to pull up their socks and improve in all the three departments if they want to beat Afghanistan, who have a well-rounded bowling attack.

Afghanistan, despite being comprehensively beaten by Australia in their opening game, will back themselves to bounce back against a demoralised Lankan team. However, in order to do that, their openers need to score runs and make sure they set a platform for the lower order, which performed reasonably well against the likes of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in Bristol.

Squads: Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay

Afghanistan: Gulbadin Naib (c), Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb ur Rahman

Meanwhile, India will start their campaign in the 2019 World Cup on June 05 (Wednesday) against South Africa at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. While India will be playing their first game, South Africa come into the game having lost both their games so far in the showpiece event, against England and Bangladesh.

India, now captained by Virat Kohli, have been tagged as one of the favourites to lift the World Cup along with England and Australia.

But a dominating warm-up win over Bangladesh earlier this week already gives them confidence of a good showing in the 50-over showpiece event.

South Africa's World Cup 2019 campaign went from bad to worse after the Proteas were humbled by an electric Bangladesh team in World Cup 2019 on Sunday.

This was South Africa's second straight loss following the drubbing at the hands of hosts England in the World Cup 2019 opener.

There was more bad news for the South African team as key fast bowler Lungi Ngidi was ruled out of the all-important clash against the No.2-ranked India.

South Africa's task of reaching the last-four will in all probability hinge on them getting one over tournament favourites India but poor form, juxtaposed with injuries in the squad could spell doom for the South Africans.

Squads: South Africa: Faf du Plessis (c), Quinton de Kock (vc & wk), David Miller, JP Duminy, Hashim Amla, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Dwaine Pretorius, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Imran Tahir, Tabraiz Shamsi

India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, Dinesh Karthik (wk), KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja

In another match, Australia will take on West Indies on June 06 (Thursday).

After Australia dispatched Afghanistan for 207 inside 39 overs to pave the way for a comfortable win in Bristol on Saturday, Coulter-Nile said he, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins would happily test out the Windies' batsmen with plenty of short balls.

Australia captain Aaron Finch agreed that short balls would play a significant role through the tournament.

West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell says he is confident of recovering from a knee problem in time for his side's second Cricket World Cup match against Australia on June 06 (Thursday).

Russell limped off at Nottingham after a hostile spell of fast bowling during which he took two wickets for four runs in three overs against Pakistan.


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