Scotland will take on Afghanistan in the 17th match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Scotland will be playing a T20 WC Super 12 encounter for the first time in their cricketing history. Afghanistan has developed as a team pretty well in the last decade would like to take advantage of the pressure of the big stage on Scotland. In this piece, we preview this encounter and look at the stats of the players going into the match.
Both the teams have fought it out six times in this format and Afghanistan has a 100 % win record against the other team. Three of the matches were in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier and one match was played in the group stage in the 2016 edition where Scotland lost the match by 14 runs chasing 171. M.Shahzad scored has more than 300 runs in these six encounters and Matt Machan has the most runs for Scotland with 171 runs to his name. Hamid Hassan is the leading wicket-taker with 10 wickets.
Scotland
The team will surely be high on confidence after remaining unbeaten in Group B and especially after defeating Bangladesh after being 53-6 in the first innings. The team will hope for George Munsey to show up at the big stage given his good international record of more than 1100 runs at a strike rate of 151.34. The team will depend on him to give a good start and at a quick rate as batting gets difficult in the UAE after the first 6-8 overs. In the bowling department, the team will have high hopes from their spinner M.Watt who has more than 50 wickets in T20I’s at a good economy of 7 runs per over. For Scotland, it will be more of every individual playing their role and enjoying the big match day in terms of their cricketing history
Afghanistan
The team will start as favorites in the match given the head-to-head record. They do possess one of the best, if not the best spin bowling attack in the tournament in the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, and Mujeeb ur Rahman. Afghanistan defeated the defending champions West Indies in their practice match and would want to carry. Both the openers Zazai and Shahzad got attacking starts and scored at more than 154 runs per 100 balls. The no.3 and no.4 batsman struggled to maintain that run rate and in the match against Scotland, the team will try to take the attack to the opposition in the first 10 overs. The spin trio bowled 10 overs for 37 runs taking 3 wickets and lot will rely on them in the upcoming match.
What to Expect
Afghanistan in their six matches against Scotland has won five batting 1st and one while chasing. The Sharjah Cricket Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Afghanistan as they have won 9 out of their 12 matches here, whereas Scotland has lost all the three matches they played on this ground. Given the stats and the match situation the team winning the toss would like to bat first and put on a good defendable total on the board. Scotland has the best economy in the powerplay and the most wickets at the death in the first round of the tournament, and if they manage to put a good score on the board they could handle the situation well rather than chasing an average target and getting strangled by the three spinners of Afghanistan.
For Scotland, there is lots more to achieve than hopes for finishing in the top 2 in their group. A good tournament could be the starting point to become a full member nation and with the IPL auctions coming up along with the various leagues, few players may have a life-changing opportunity in their hands. All in all, this match will be great for cricket given the two sides involved.