Cricket: Afghanistan takes on Ireland in WCL Division One, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nawroz-Mangal-c2084 hopes to score
Afghanistan cricket has seen a lot of success in recent times. The Afghani team is the first Associate/Affiliate team in the history of cricket to get One Day International status. They would like to continue their new found good form in the World Cricket League Division One.
Afghanistan will play Ireland with a recently developed batting line up. The backbone of the line up is Nawroz Mangal. Nawroz has been the leading run scorer in last two games, with scores of 53 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748 on the opening day of World Cricket League Division One, but will be tested by Ireland. Ireland is ranked number 11 in international cricket, while Afghanistan is ranked at number 14.
Defending champions Ireland also managed to win their first match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745. "I enjoyed batting out there and though I couldn't score what would have been my first ODI century, I have no regrets. We were chasing a small score because we bowled very well. I thought the more you stayed at the wicket, the easier the batting got".
Ireland captain Trent Johnston has expressed his desire to remain at the top of Associate Members. "I just want to keep http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 a couple of weeks ago and if we can make that sort of commitment on the field and put three disciplines together, we have got a very good chance of lifting the trophy again,"- Trent Johnston said.
Both teams have won their first match against their respective opponents. This match will be a litmus test for both teams. Both are the likely favourites for winning World Cricket League Division.
But Afghanistan needs to work on its bowling department. In their last outing against Canada, Afghani bowlers gave away 34 runs in the form of extras. Similarly in their warm up match against Ireland, Afghanistan had criminal figures of 20 wide deliveries. Afghanistan is hoping that their participation experience in T20 World Cup against the big guns will give them a cutting edge advantage over some other teams.
Let’s look at some of the past statistics for both teams. Afghanistan has played six ODI matches overall, out of which it has managed to win four. Two victories were against Canada while one each was against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 but their moment of achievement came when they defeated a strong Pakistani team. This great feat by Ireland was achieved in 2007. The Cricketing world had hoped that Ireland will improve on that victory and start to threaten big names but Ireland has failed to impress against any test playing nation. They were close to victory against Australia a couple of weeks back but lost it at the end.
Both teams will try to put pressure on each other from the very start of the match. Afghanistan has a strong batting line up but they can only capitalize on their strength if the bowling department supports it. Ireland on the other hand will be depending on their past experience and the good form of PR Stirling.
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