It’s the first match of the 2022 Asia Cup Super 4 Stage and if you’d like some top Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka betting tips in this important match, you’re about to get them.
Our online cricket betting analysis of this match also includes everything you need to know for the match at Sharjah on Saturday, September 3, with a start time of 7.30 pm IST.
My cricket betting tips are below and I’m about to explain why it’s Afghanistan who are the value to win the game; in what looks like a 50/50 game they shouldn’t be outsiders the way they are.
I’ve also got a tip on the toss winner market and a third one on a market that we don’t normally play.
Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka Betting Winner Prediction
Recommended Bet: Back Afghanistan to win @ 2.28 with Parimatch.
With only one match played at Sharjah so far at the time of writing, we’re not yet sure that chasing is as much of an advantage as it is in Dubai, where so far three of the four matches were won by the chaser.
The one that wasn’t? India vs Hong Kong where quite frankly, it wouldn’t have mattered who had chased given the gulf between the two sides.
Still, if you’re around to play the match in Live Betting then by all means go with the side chasing, whoever that is: they’ll probably win.
But as a pre-match bet, it’s Afghanistan who are the value.
They beat Sri Lanka comfortably just a few days ago at this very venue and were good value for their win against Bangladesh, too.
Sri Lanka, as we explain in detail below, are only here because Bangladesh, quite frankly, messed up.
You’ll hear us say this plenty of times when it comes to cricket betting: if two sides look quite well-matched, then it pays in the long run to go with the one who is available at bigger odds, which as we know is Rashid Khan and co.
Given Afghanistan are arguably in better form, then it makes even more sense to go with them.
Our Parimatch review explains what we like about this betting site and why it’s one of the ones we recommend the most.
Recommended Bet: Back Afghanistan on the Best result of the first partnership @ 2.02 with Parimatch.
One of the reasons why Sri Lanka lost their first match was that their openers weren’t able to form any sort of opening partnership.
In the first match they put on just five runs.
They were much better in the second game, putting on 45 runs before the loss of their first wicket but even then, that involved a dropped catch to allow them to get close.
Afghanistan have been better. Against Sri Lanka, appropriately, they put on a huge partnership of 84 for the first wicket and against Bangladesh it was 15.
That is of course a small sample but with Afghanistan also having arguably a better set of opening bowlers, it’s worth chancing them on the ‘Best result of the first partnership’ market as slight outsiders.
They’ll be delighted with their work so far after securing back-to-back wins against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
They were certainly made to work hard for their win over Bangladesh and can thank some good late hitting from Najibullah Zadran for getting them over the line.
At one stage they were well behind the run rate, albeit with wickets in hand, but his 43 off 17, including six sixes, put the game to bed earlier than expected, with nine balls to spare.
The man of the match though was Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who carries on being a huge asset as a spinner who can open the bowling.
He dismissed all of Bangladesh’s Top 3 and that’s pretty much where the game was won.
And crucially, Rashid Khan was back to his best.
His figures were 3-22 and they’ll need plenty more from him and Mujeeb if they’re to do the unthinkable and make their first-ever final.
They’re unlikely to make any changes for this one because, well, why would they?
Afghanistan’s Likely XI
Zazai, Gurbaz, I Zadran, N Zadran, Janta, Nabi, Khan, Omarzai, Ul Haq, Rahman, Farooqi.
Sri Lanka’s Recent Form
If you want to be really critical, it wasn’t so much a case of Sri Lanka winning their do-or-die game against Bangladesh as it was a case of Bangladesh losing it.
They gave Kusal Mendis four (yes, four) lives before he got to 60 off 37 and had they dismissed him any of those four times, the Tigers would have probably won the game.
But they didn’t and Mendis’ knock, alongside good contributions from Dasun Shanka (45 off 33) and the unlikely Asitha Fernando, who hit 10 off three on debut.
It also helped that they were chasing in Dubai rather than batting first, which as we know, is a big advantage.
Still, the truth is they got the job done from a highly unlikely position and now they’re in the next round.
Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva was uncharacteristically expensive and will carry on being their main man here despite a quiet game on Thursday.
We’re at Sharjah for this one and writing ahead of Pakistan vs Hong Kong being played, we only have the Bangladesh vs Afghanistan match to go by from this year.
The Tigers managed just 127, which Afghanistan chased, but not without a few bumps along the way.
So it may be a tougher track than Dubai is to bat on and as ever, teams will want to chase, knowing what their target is and knowing that the dew may play a significant factor later on in the game.
