Afghanistan and England are bidding to stay alive in the race for a semi final spot in the ICC Champions Trophy which makes Wednesday's clash in Lahore a must win game.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan's opening game saw them go down to South Africa by 107 runs in Karachi so they have no margin for error with this clash with England and Friday's game against Australia in Lahore to come.
Afghanistan lost the toss and were invited to bowl first against the Proteas who posted a very healthy 315/6 in their 50 overs. Nabi with figures of 2/51 was the pick of the Afghan bowlers. After 14 overs of the chase Afghanistan had lost 4 wickets and had 50 runs on the board. Rahmat Shah made 90 off 92 balls but no other batsman made it into the 20's as they were bowled out for 208 in 43.3 overs.
This was how Afghanistan lined up last time out.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad
England
England are also playing catch up after they went down to Australia by 5 wickets at this venue on Saturday.
Australia won the toss and opted to bowl first and England posted 351/8. Duckett made 165 and Root 68. That left Australia requiring a record run chase in this tournament and despite losing 2 wickets in the first 4.1 overs Australia powered to victory with 15 balls to spare. Of 6 bowlers used by England 5 took 1 wicket each with Rashid (1/47) easily the most economical.
This was how England lined up last time out.
Philip Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (c), Liam Livingstone, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
After this England take on the Proteas and if they win here that could be a virtual eliminator.
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 3 times in this format with Afghanistan winning 1 to England's 2
The only recent meeting saw Afghanistan beat England by 68 runs in a 2023 World Cup pool match in Delhi.
The Betting
At the time of writing Afghanistan are 2.55/1 to win this match and England can be backed at 3/10
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
England will benefit for having played at this venue, the toss could be crucial if there is any dew around and the pitch looked for of runs last weekend.
I think we will see a top batter total of 102 runs or more and the P/P picks are Nabi and Jamie Smith
Bets: Top Batter Total over 101.5 runs at 17/20 with Betway
Mohammad Nabi Total Player Performance, over 31.5 at 17/20 with Betway
Jamie Smith Total Player Performance, over 42.5 at 17/20 with Betway
