Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib has played down the weather threat ahead of their World Cup match against Sri Lanka today, saying a rain-shortened game would suit his aggressive side. Forecasts predict persistent rain in Cardiff, which could play havoc with Afghanistan’s bid to get their first win in this year’s tournament.
Naib’s team were given a harsh lesson by holders Australia, who cruised to a seven-wicket win in the opening game for both teams in Bristol on Saturday. But Naib believes his team have a better chance of success against Sri Lanka, whom they beat by 91 runs in last year’s Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates, if the contest is reduced from the scheduled 50 overs-per-side due to the weather.
Asked yesterday if he was worried about rain derailing Afghanistan’s hopes, a relaxed Naib told reporters: “It was also predicted for today, but it didn’t rain so much. Tomorrow we just see what’s the weather. I think maybe the weather will be the same. So if we can reduce the overs it will be much better for us.”
Despite the defeat against Australia, Naib says Afghanistan were encouraged by parts of their performance and he hopes to build on that in the Sri Lanka match. “We’ve got to be positive. If you look, we missed out on 12 overs in the previous game, yet we scored 200-plus,” Naib said. “If you have wickets in hand, so maybe the score is 300-plus something.”
Sri Lanka were dismissed for a paltry 136 by New Zealand in their first World Cup match in Cardiff and Naib plans to prey on those batting weaknesses. “I saw the Sri Lankans play on TV. They lost a few games in the last two years and they’re struggling in one-day matches,” he said.
“Yeah, we have the opportunity to do well against them,” added the skipper, whose team lost to Sri Lanka at the 2015 World Cup. “But they are also a good team and we cannot it take easy. We can try to score big. If we play 50 overs maybe it will be difficult for them.”
“If in the start the seamers are bowling well, automatically confidence goes to the spinner sides, we have good spinners with Rashid and Mujeeb and they can spin it anywhere. They can spin it in any kind of conditions so if we can get a good start with the bat, as they are traditionally a good bowling side, then we can do well with our bowling attack. I have full confidence in our spinners so we just want to build some momentum in the match, we really have momentum spinners like Rashid and Mujeeb in how they bowl.”
And although it is only early days in Afghanistan’s second World Cup appearance, Naib insists he has already seen a drastic improvement in his side’s performance compared to 2015. “If you look for the last game against Australia, we did well a lot of things there,” he said. “I think we played how we played in the last two, three years cricket, so we improve a lot of things. I think it’s good for us to play here at this level. If you play this kind of matches only this kind of team, you take a lot of positive things and it’s work in the future.”
Naib also declared pace bowler Hamid Hassan fit to face Sri Lanka. “Hassan was hit by the ball (in the last game) but he’s feeling well,” he said.