New Delhi: When Afghanistan takes the field against the Pakistani team on Monday at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, they will do everything they can to make the World Cup journey of Pakistan more miserable in the coming days.
Pakistan, who enjoyed most of the tournament till now in the top 4, slipped to the number 5 position after getting defeated by the Aussies, while despite pulling a huge upset against England, the Afghanistan cricket team still finds themselves at the bottom of the table courtesy of big losses they endured against the other teams.
It’s Pakistan vs Afghanistan today in a must win game at Chennai. Afghanistan will come on spin attack on spin support wicket. Do Pakistan has answer for Afghan spinners? Looks like we’ll have a close contest today.
Video by @cricketworldcup #PAKvsAFG #PAKvAFG #AFGvsPAK… pic.twitter.com/pKKHgREfdu
— M@ula (@OfclMaula) October 23, 2023
Journey so far
Pakistan’s journey at the ICC World Cup 2023, is nothing less than a roller coaster ride. They started their campaign with a huge 81 runs victory against the Netherlands, followed by a six-wicket victory over the Sri Lankan team. However, things started to crumble down for them ever since they lost to the arch-rivals India by 7 wickets in the world’s largest cricket stadium at Ahmedabad. Pakistan found itself surrounded by off-field controversies. Thanks to the team director Mickey Arthur’s comments on BCCI, they found themselves distracted in their next match against the Aussies and ended up losing both the match and the number 4 spot to them.
Pakistan desperately needs a win on Monday if they want to stay strong in the top 4 race. However, Pakistan still can’t find themselves out of controversy as their former cricket and captain, Md. Hafeez has once against accused BCCI of conspiring against the Pakistani team with the match venue.
The pitch used for India vs Australia was kept for Pakistan vs Afghanistan to favour Afghan spinners : Muhammad Hafeez #CWC23 #PAKvsAFG pic.twitter.com/wWULkcT8pC
— Haider. (@Notyourhaider_) October 23, 2023
On the other hand, Afghanistan, despite their historic win against the defending champions England, have mostly found themselves at the receiving end of the stick against all the other teams. They started their campaign with huge losses of 6 and 8 wickets against Bangladesh and India, respectively. They did make a comeback after defeating the English side by 69 but were soon set on a downward motion by New Zealand, who handed them the biggest loss of the season by 149 runs.
Afghanistan, despite their poor outing against the Kiwis in the last match, will still back themselves with their three spinners getting the advantage on the Chennai pitch against the disoriented Pakistani batting line-up to create yet another huge uproar in the points table.
Head to head records
Entertainment Guranteed 😁💥
Afghanistan vs Pakistan at Chepauk#WhistlePodu #CWC23 #Afg #Pak pic.twitter.com/A7CwknQyXv
— CSK Fans Army™ (@CSKFansArmy) October 15, 2023
If we are to talk about the head to head records of the two teams, the Pakistani team have the edge over their neighbours with a significant gap.
Both the teams have locked horns against each other seven times in ODI cricket before, in which the men in green have emerged victorious at all occasions, however, the Afghanistan team will try to change the custom and will try to get one over their neighbours.
