Asia Cup 2018: Match 6, Bangladesh vs Afghanistan – Trend Analysis

The Asia Cup 2018 is set to take up another Group game without any context as Bangladesh and Afghanistan will face off fresh from big wins over Sri Lanka. This game will give both the teams a proper idea of the conditions in Abu Dhabi as Bangladesh never played at this venue till date while Afghanistan played only one ODI coming into the tournament here.

Both the teams will be hoping to gain more confidence with a win here before taking on India and Pakistan in the Super-4s. Afghanistan and Bangladesh have just the same approach in the ODI format as they can potentially collapse any time and both the teams make use of the spinners cleverly.

Bangladesh:

While the world banks on the theory of chasing, Bangladesh are quite opposite at least in the conditions that offer turn. Their spinners and the pace attack formed by skipper Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain help them to defend totals above 220 on the tracks that tend to slow down.

It is not that Bangladesh doesn’t have enough in them to chase but are used to defending totals better having played lots of ODI games at home that resemble the surfaces in the UAE. The absence of Tamim Iqbal might force Mashrafe to elect to bat first whenever he wins the toss. Without a consistent performer like Tamim at the top, Bangladesh might struggle to chase if they end up conceding anything more than 240 runs.

Afghanistan:

Afghanistan might have a batting line-up that tends to collapse but they have chased down targets quite easily this year. Their winning streak during the recent World Cup qualifiers began when their opponents began to bat first worrying about the slowness of the surfaces in Zimbabwe. After a disastrous start, Afghanistan emerged on the top every time to end up winning the tournament.

They are currently on a 6-match winning streak while chasing in List A matches (Out of which five have ODI status). The top-order performance in their previous match would surely bump up the confidence in the team and they might be happy even if asked to chase.

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