No upsets on Day 13 of the Cricket World Cup, but for the second day in a row and associate nation matchup made for compelling cricket. The Afghanistan / Scotland nail biter was in stark contrast to the one-sided matchup across the Tasman between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Check out our take on the two games:
Day 13 Results
1. Afghanistan v Scotland
Afghanistan justified their favourites tag and created World Cup history when they beat Scotland by one wicket. Their first ever World Cup win was a nervous affair that had more twists and turns than an NRL cocaine scandal. A fine 96 from Samiullah Shenwari saw them bounce back from a precarious 97/7 to deliver an emotional win that justified their involvement in world cricket.
Earlier, Scotland had again struggled with the bat on a zesty Dunedin surface. Happy to throw the bat at any width, but reluctant to tighten their games in accordance with the movement on offer, the Scots just got to 200 for the first time in a World Cup. The innings featured plenty of 20’s and 30’s on the scorecard but no standouts. In fairness, 210 could have been much worse when they were 132/6, but Alasdair Evans and Majid Haq hung around to see out the overs. The Afghanistan quicks, who are in actuality a formidable opening pair shared seven wickets between them in a Boult / Southee like performance.
In response Afghanistan almost made an alright hash of their run chase. Starting aggressively, perhaps in the pursuit of a net run rate improvement, they raced to 40 in just 7 overs, mainly thanks to Javed Ahmadi, before their first lost wicket derailed their momentum. Royally so too. They lost 7/55 to leave their pursuit of a first win nigh on impossible. Shenwari finally found some support in Hassan and Zadran to get them home. His three consecutive sixes of Haq broke the back of the chase and although he couldn’t see them all the way home, was the obvious man of the match.
Afghanistan 211 for 9 (Shenwari 96, Ahmadi 51, Berrington 4-40) beat Scotland 210 (Shapoor 4-38, Dawlat 3-29) by one wicket
2. Sri Lanka v Bangladesh
Big second wicket partnerships are all the rage in 2015 Cricket World Cup and Sri Lanka didn’t want to be left behind. Hence Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara combined for a baby mammoth 210 run stand to end Bangladesh’s hopes of causing an upset. We say baby mammoth, because Gayle and Samuels have redefined the levels of mammoth.
Dilshan and Sangakkara used all of their experience to manoeuvre their side to a competitive total and register personal milestones of their own. Sangakkara celebrated his 400th ODI with another ODI century, and Dilshan recorded his 21st. In posting the challenging target, they took advantage of sloppy fielding and catching from the Tigers, something their captain, Mashrafe Mortaza, said was the losing of the game.
Bangladesh were 92 short of the target when they were bowled out in the 47th over. At 100/5 the match was essentially over, however Shakib, Mushfiqur and Sabbir were able to get some late batting practice in.
Sri Lanka couldn’t afford a loss and didn’t. It may have been nice to get Matthews, Karunaratne and Chandimal some batting practice to ease the reliance on their big three. But a win is a win.
Sri Lanka 332 for 1 (Dilshan 161*, Sangakkara 105*) beat Bangladesh 240 (Sabbir 53, Shakib 46, Malinga 3-35) by 92 runs
Betfair:
Bet on Henrik Stenson to become the BMW PGA Championship Winner.
Paddypower:
Back Australia to take the Ashes home with them.
Betway:
Back Rafael Nadal to become the Mens French Open Winner.
Coral:
Back One For Arthur to win the Grand National.
Bet365:
Back Mexico to win the Confederations Cup.
