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Brian Lara tipped up Afghanistan as one of the leading contenders before the tournament and now the Afghans can clinch Super 8 qualification with a victory against Papua New Guinea at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.
DATE & TIME: Thursday 13th June, 2024 – USA – 8:30pm / West Indies – 9:30pm & Friday 14th June, 2024 – UK – 1:30am / South Africa – 2:30am / Pakistan – 5:30am / India – 6:00am / Bangladesh – 6:30am / Australia – 10:30am
VENUE: Brian Lara Cricket Academy, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
WEATHER: 27c or 80.6 F with clear skies
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: USA – Willow TV / West Indies – ESPN Caribbean / UK – Sky Sports / South Africa – SuperSport / Pakistan – PTV Sports & TEN Sports / India – Star Sports / Bangladesh – Disney Star
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: USA – Willow TV website / West Indies – ESPN Play Caribbean app / UK – Sky Go / South Africa – SuperSport app / Pakistan – Myco & Tamasha / India – Disney+Hotstar / Bangladesh – Disney+Hotstar / Australia – Amazon Prime Video
AFGHANISTAN FORM: POTENTIAL FAVOURITES
Afghanistan have enjoyed a magnificent start to a tournament they will be seriously targeting to make history. Their rapid rise to being an established full member has been remarkable and they will move into the Super 8’s as a leading contender with a win here after hammering both Uganda and New Zealand in their opening couple of matches at this tournament.
LAST FIVE: WWAWW
PAPUA NEW GUINEA FORM: LOW EXPECTATIONS
Papua New Guinea were outside of the top three of Afghanistan, New Zealand and the West Indies in Group C but are widely recognised as a major step up from Uganda. However, they started strongly against West Indies, forcing the hosts to take it deep but then suffered a major upset by losing to Uganda, losing by three wickets after being bowled out for just 77.
LAST FIVE: LLLLL
AFGHANISTAN BETTING ANALYSIS
At the time of writing, Afghanistan’s left-arm quick opening bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi is the leading wicket-taker in the competition with nine scalps in two matches. Five came against New Zealand and then four against Uganda so simply siding with him to continue his good form and pick up at least two wickets against PNG (8/11).
As for the batting, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran are the opening partnership that are giving Afghanistan the platform to believe they can cause a major upset at the back end of this competition. Gurbaz is winning the battle at the minute but Zadran to outdo him here (5/2) and be their top scorer in the match is worth a bet.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA BETTING ANALYSIS
Papua New Guinea, as mentioned, did start steadily in their defeat to the West Indies and forced them to go deep. They posted over 130 and that was largely down to a half-century from Sese Bau. With Tony Ura and Assad Vala still dominating the odds, Bau to have another good day out and be PNG’s leading scorer in the match (4/1) is decent value.
Afghanistan have only lost 11 wickets so far in this competition so backing a PNG bowler to take at least two will be a bit of a gamble but if anyone was to do it then it would be Alei Nao (4/1), who has taken three wickets in their two matches.
AFGHANISTAN VS PAPUA NEW GUINEA EXPERT PREDICTION
Afghanistan are genuinely one of the very best sides in this competition. The Afghans have always had an elite spin attack and they now have excellent seam bowling options as well as a brilliant all-rounder in Azmatullah Omarzai and the aforementioned openers. This isn’t the Afghanistan of five years ago but a serious force and the likelihood and expectation is that they hammer Papua New Guinea in this one.
AFGHANISTAN VS PAPUA NEW GUINEA TOP TIP: AFGHANISTAN TO WIN