INTRODUCTION:
Everyone talks about the 0-7 record of Pakistan against India. But only few know that Pakistan has a positive record of 7-0 against their fellow Asian team Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka have faced Pakistan only twice (Ever since they’ve become a force to reckon with) in the last 31 years in a World Cup in which 1 game was abandoned due to rain. Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka had contrasting start to their World Cup campaign. An 81-run win and a 102-run loss respectively. Pakistan will look to avenge the 2-wicket loss last month against Sri Lanka which eventually knocked them out of the Asia Cup.
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan have finally won an ODI after exactly 1 month. They have lost 4 consecutive ODIs (including 2 Warm-ups). Even though the win was against Netherlands, they were tested and were put under pressure during the match at times. Their biggest plus from that game was the form of both Saud Shakeel & Hasan Ali. Especially Saud Shakeel’s partnership with Rizwan was the major reason for them posting a respectable total. Their worries would be the same as Fakhar Zaman had yet another failure, Shadab still not at his best. Pakistan will be going into this clash as favourites as they have a better knowledge about the pitch as they have played all their 3 games here (2 warm-ups).
SRI LANKA:
Sri Lanka are coming off from a huge loss which could have been a massive one. Chasing 429 Sri Lanka brought down the margin of defeat down to 102 with the help of some quick knocks from Kushal Mendis, Charith Asalanka & Dasun Shanaka. Not much can be criticized about their bowling as containing the South African onslaught on that pitch would’ve been a tough challenge for many attacks in the world. They would rather focus on the positive side of the result. The biggest one would be the batting form of their skipper Shanaka who scored a fifty after a long time and bowled decently well with the economy of 6 when others were leaking well above 8.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI:
PAKISTAN: Fakhar Zaman, Imam Ul Haq, Babar Azam (c), Muhammed Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Muhammed Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kushal Perera, Kushal Mendis (WK), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (C), Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana, Dilshan Madhushanka.
INTERESTING MATCH-UPS:
- Saud Shakeel against the Sri Lankan spinners will be a battle to watch for as he took the attack to the Dutch spinners with ease during the rebuild phase in the previous game.
INTERESTING FACTS & STATS:
- Babar Azam has an average of 12 in the span of 17 innings in multi-National tournaments against all teams excluding Nepal.
- Sri Lanka have faced Pakistan in a World Cup only 2 times in the last 8 World Cups spanning 31 years.
- Imam ul Haq needs 9 runs to reach 3000 ODI runs.
- Kasun Rajitha needs 2 more wickets to reach 100 International wickets.
VENUE DETAILS:
DATE: 10 October 2023
TIME: 2.00 PM (IST)
VENUE: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
PREDICTIONS:
TOSS: The team which wins the toss might choose to Bat first and make use of the flat pitch and expect the ball to swing under the lights later in the evening.
WEATHER: 0.0 mm of rain and 73% Humidity is expected.
WINNING CHANCES: PAKISTAN 65% NETHERLANDS 35%.
DREAM 11 FANTASY TEAM
