ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan to clash for Semi-final hopes

Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will look to keep their slim hopes of qualifying for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 semi-final alive as they face each other on October 30, at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune. With wins against the Netherlands and England, Sri Lanka is currently fifth on the World Cup 2023 points table with four points. The winner of the match will remain in contention to make it to the top four.

Both Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have won 2 of their 5 matches so far. Sri Lanka is in the fifth position with a much better net run rate (NRR) while the Afghans are in the seventh position. This match will decide which team will stay in contention to make it to the semi-finals.

These two teams have played 11 ODIs against each other so far. Sri Lanka has won 7 of those and Afghanistan 3. One match did not produce any results. The last time these two met was in September 2023, when Sri Lanka defeated Afghanistan by 2 runs.

“We have a game against Sri Lanka tomorrow, so we are thinking of that now. And our aim and goal is to achieve and to go to the next round. That’s what we are thinking about,” Afghanistan captain Shahidi said in the pre-match press conference in Pune on October 29.

“But from now, we are not thinking – like from tomorrow’s game, how to go to the semi-final. We think match by match and our mindset is busy with tomorrow’s Sri Lankan game right now. So, let’s see what happens tomorrow. Then we will think about other games and moving forward to the semi-final,” he added.

Sri Lanka holds the edge over Afghanistan in ODI cricket – having won 7 out of the 11 matches between the two sides with the Afghans winning 3 games and one ending in no result.

Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan World Cup 2023: Squads

Sri Lanka: Kusal Mendis (c), Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Angelo Mathews, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushan Hemantha, Chamika Karunaratne.

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman and Naveen ul Haq.