Asia Cup 2018: Super-4s, Match 2, Pakistan vs Afghanistan – Trend Analysis

The Super-4s game between Pakistan and Afghanistan could well be about the confidence and momentum with which the teams come into the match. Both these teams are heavy in their bowling departments but possess a batting line-up that tends to collapse and has a lot of uncertainty surrounding it. Pakistan were given a timely reality check by the Indian team after their recent success in Zimbabwe against weaker teams.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, have defeated two higher ranked teams; Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by 91 and 136 runs respectively in the Group Stage. They will be aiming to register their maiden win over Pakistan and continue their winning streak. Both the teams have faced off in two ODIs and a T20I with the CT Champions emerging victorious on all three occasions.

Pakistan:

It is tough to deal with Pakistan when the opposition are trying to set a target as they possess a quality bowling attack. Their bowling has time and again ensured the batting side doesn’t get to the kind of total they were initially aiming for. In the recent 11 ODIs where a team batted first against Pakistan, they were bowled out nine times. Of those 11 games only once a team ended up posting a 300+ total. It will be interesting to see if Afghans continue their strategy of winning the toss and batting even against Pakistan.

Afghanistan:

Afghanistan has always believed in their bowling attack that could help them defend any sort of total on a pitch with assistance. They might prefer to bat first as they did against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh having registered huge wins. Afghans might rethink about their decision given the way Pakistan treated the oppositions while bowling first which is unlikely to happen given the way Abu Dhabi track has played in the tournament.

If Pakistan opts to bat first looking at the history, Afghanistan would rather be happy as the last six times they were chasing in List A cricket (5 ODIs), they ended up on the winning side in all the games. They were asked to chase only after losing the toss in all those six games.

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