Pakistan vs Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Tour of Pakistan, 2019, Today Match Prediction 02 Oct 2019

pak vs srl Match Prediction & Analysis

Pakistan had an excellent all-around performance in the comeback match at their home soil to attain a clinical win by 67 runs. They continued their dominance over the Sri Lankan team off late. Pakistan will look to win this match and give their home crowd a mouth-watering feast in their home series after a long time.

Sri Lanka team`s struggles in the ODI format continue to haunt them as they are still in search of a good team combination for the last 2-3 years. They were outplayed by Pakistan team for the most part of the game and were never really troubling the chase. Sri Lanka will need to win this match to level this series. The new-look Sri Lankan team will need to play out of their skins to put a good show against the Pakistan team. 

TEAMS PREVIEW

Pakistan Preview

Pakistan will be delighted with their victory in the first game by 67 runs. Their batting unit led by Babar Azam posted a mammoth total of 305 runs at the end of their 50 overs. Openers Imam-Ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman set the tone of the match with a 73-run partnership and Fakhar Zaman continued his good form and scored a good half-century.  Babar Azam continued the good start by openers and scored a brilliant century. Ifthikar Ahmed and Haris Sohail shared good partnership in the middle to take their team to a good total. Usman Shinwari was the pick of the bowlers with 5 wickets in the match. Mohammed Amir, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, and Shadab Khan all chipped in wickets and never allowed Sri Lankan team to settle down in the chase. 

Key Players:
Babar Azam – Babar Azam scored 115 runs with 8 fours and 4 sixes in the last match. This is his 11th century in just 71 ODI innings he has played so far. Babar Azam will look to continue his good form and torment the Sri Lankan team. 
Usman Shinwari – Usman Shinwari`s opening burst of 5-1-16-3 stunned Sri Lanka to 28/5 in 10 overs and they never recovered from this assault to hand Pakistan an easy win. He finished with a match haul of 5/51. 

Pakistan Predicted Playing XI:

Sarfraz Ahmed (C & Wk), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-Ul-Haq, Asif Ali, Haris Sohail, Imad Wasim, Mohammed Amir, Wahab Riaz, Usman Shinwari, Shadab Khan

Sri Lanka Preview

Sri Lanka is struggling to build a good team in the ODI format and they have never won a series after 2014 against top teams except for the Bangladesh team. This will be a massive boost for their team if they manage to win this match and level the series.

Their top-order stumbled to 28/5 in 10 overs in the chase. Shehan Jayasuriya (96 runs) and Dasun Shanaka (68 runs) put a massive 177-run partnership as a rear guard but was not enough to trouble the chase. Their bowling unit managed to get just 4 wickets and they never troubled Pakistani batsmen. All the bowlers gave runs at nearly 6 RPO. Wanindu Hathurasinghe picked up two wickets while Lahiru Kumara and Isuru Udana snapped a wicket each. Their fielding unit affected three run-outs to give valiant support to their bowlers.

Key Players:
Shehan Jayasuriya – Shehan Jayasuriya missed out on his maiden century after being dismissed for 96 runs. He came in at 28/5 and took his team to 205/6 when he was dismissed to add a 177-run partnership with Shanaka.    
Wanidu Hathurasinghe – Hathurasinghe took 2 wickets and scored a quickfire 30 runs in the last match. He dismissed both the opening batsmen of Pakistan to peg them back after a good start early on. 

Sri Lanka Predicted Playing XI:

Lahiru Thirumanne (c), Avishka Fernando, Shehan Jayasuriya, Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), Lahiru Kumara, Isuru Udana, Dasun Shanaka, Wanidu Hathurasinghe, Danushka Gunathilaka, Nuwan Pradeep, Oshado Fernando

Weather Conditions

The weather forecast predicts the match day to be sunny and bright with no rain interruptions. 

Venue Details

Karachi Ground is known to have good batting pitch with an average score in the range of 270-280 runs. Pace bowlers may enjoy bowling here with the new ball

Toss: To Bat

Teams will look to bat first and post a good total on board as Pakistan did in the first match. Chasing becomes difficult under lights.