Monday’s action in the Cricket World Cup comes from Southampton where Afghanistan clash with Bangladesh
Bangladesh:
Bangladesh were involved in a high scoring game against Australia in Nottingham on Thursday. They really needed a win to keep their hopes of a semi final place alive but they went down gallantly by 48 runs.
Australia posted 381/5 batting first and at the stage you could have named your own price for Bangladesh to chase it down. Bangladesh gave it their all and their reply closed on 333/8 with the major contributions coming from Mushfiqur Rahim (102 not out), Mahmudullah (69), Tamim Iqbal (62) and Shakib Al Hasan (41).
Bangladesh now have 2 wins, 3 defeats and 1 no result from their 6 outings. Earlier results comprise of a 21 run victory over South Africa, defeats to New Zealand (2 wickets) and England (104 runs) and a winnable looking clash with Sri Lanka was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Shakib Al Hasan is the top run scorer for Bangladesh with 425, Mushfiqur Rahim has made 244 and Tamim Iqbal has 169. Mohammad Saifuddin is leading wicket taker with 9, Mustafizur Rahman has 8 and Mehidy Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan both have 5.
This was how Bangladesh lined up against Australia last time out
Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Liton Das, Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman
Afghanistan:
It’s a quick turnaround for Afghanistan who were in action at this venue on Saturday against India and they came within 11 runs of causing a major upset. India were restricted to 224/8 with all 6 Afghanistan bowlers registering in the wickets column. At one stage of the chase Bangladesh were 106/2 but India started to put the squeeze on and despite 52 from Mohammad Nabi they ran out of wickets, all out for 213 with 1 ball remaining.
Afghanistan have now lost all 6 of their matches. In earlier results they went down to Australia by 7 wickets, Sri Lanka by 34 runs (DLS), New Zealand by 7 wickets, South Africa by 9 wickets (DLS) and England by 150 runs
Hashmatullah Shahidi s leading run scorer for Afghanistan with 186, Najibullah Zadran has 134 and Rahmat Shah has made 133. With the ball Gulbadin Naib has taken 7 wickets and Mohammad Nabi has 6.
This was how Afghanistan lined up against India last time out.
Hazratullah Zazai, Gulbadin Naib(c), Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Ali Khil(w), Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Aftab Alam, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Head to Head
The teams have met 7 times with Afghanistan winning 3 and Bangladesh have won 4.
The most recent head to heads came in the Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi in September 2018, Afghanistan won the first match by 136 runs and Bangladesh edged the second game by just 3 runs.
When the teams met in Canberra in World Cup 2015 Bangladesh came out on top by 105 runs.
The Betting, Click here for all markets
Bangladesh 1 / 5
Afghanistan 7/2
Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.
Verdict:
After almost upsetting India at this venue at the weekend Afghanistan could be more of a handful than the match result betting suggests but Bangladesh have been playing well on a regular basis and their batting should see them through.
For a betting interest there could be some mileage in following Hashmatullah Shahidi to be top Afghanistan batsman. Shahidi has made 2 of Afghanistan’s 4 half centuries with the top 2 highest scores of 76 against England and 59 against New Zealand and hence the current price of 5/1 certainly appeals.
Suggested Bets:
Top Afghanistan Bat, H Shahidi at 5/1
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