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Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka Match Prediction: Who Will Win Today Cricket World Cup Match | CWC 2019

Gautam Kapoor
|PublishedJun 07, 2019

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Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka Match Prediction: Coming back after horrendous defeats, Sri Lanka and Pakistan head into their faceoff on the back off impressive wins

As dismal as the opening match for both these sides had been narrated, the second match was equally impressive. Reinvigorated after pummelling England and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka head into their third encounter of the ODI Cricket World Cup 2019 looking to continue their ascendancy in the league standings.

For both these sides, the consequences of this match against each other on Friday from the County Bowl, Bristol are colossal. They need to continue building on the momentum garnered in the previous match and show the cricketing fraternity why they are in with a solid chance of making it all the way to the semi-finals.

Both are coming into this match on the back of clinical performances. While Sri Lanka’s pace unit made the most of the rain hampered field and pitch to leave Afghanistan crumbled, Pakistan pulled off one of the biggest results of the tournament. They managed to defeat hosts England with the entire top order stepping up to contribute fruitfully, a much needed comeback after their debacle against West Indies.

Pakistan vs Sri lanka Head to Head

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have fought it out on the field a total of 153 times till date with Pakistan always enjoying their time out against Sri Lanka. They’ve won 90 matches against them with Sri Lanka registering a win on 58 occasions. The one match has been drawn as well while we’ve had 4 matches being abandoned as well between the two countries.

At the World Cup, Sri Lanka’s affliction against Sri Lanka only goes on to become worse. They’ve never defeated Pakistan at the showpiece event till date, losing all of their 7 encounters against them. This will be the first time the two sides will be playing against each other at the County Ground, Bristol.

Key Battles

Kusal Perera Vs Wahab Riaz

One thing which was good to see for Pakistan against England was their pacers resurgence. At the front of that rejuvenation was Wahab Riaz, someone responsible for sending back England’s enterprising top order with both pace and massive deviation.

Against Sri Lanka, the opening bowler will have to be at it again. Sri Lanka’s strongest ability in their batting unit lies in their opening partnership between Karunaratne and Perera. Perera’s 78 against Afghanistan was pivotal in seeing his country cross the 200 run mark with these additional 20 runs proving to be the difference in the end.

12 innings, 428 runs against Pakistan and this is an opposition Perera has always flourished against. With Karunaratne providing the much needed stability from the other end, Perera is accorded the ability to play his full range of shots. It’s something which could be crucial to him negating Wahab’s spell early on, especially on a wicket where the bowler will get the ball to frisk about.

Nuwan Pradeep Vs Mohammed Shahzad

His 4-31 spell against Afghanistan saw Sri Lanka manage to put done Afghanistan with consummate ease at the end, a meticulous 9 overs from him where he kept the bowling wicket to wicket to run havoc through their middle-order.

With Suranga Lakmal proving to be ineffective till now, Shahzad has the opportunity to show patience and craft out a well worked innings. If he decides to apply himself, he can get himself a good bagful of runs, one which will be important to hold together the top and middle order together.

These two are bound to square off against each other and it’s a battle which could either lead to Pakistan scoring a hefty amount of runs or Sri Lanka running through their middle-order. Traditionally, Pradeep has never been fruitful against Pakistan, picking up just 4 wickets in his 30 overs against the side. He’ll need to keep the bowling wicket to wicket and try to work Shahzad up by pitching the ball in the offstump channel and try to move it away from him.

Who can win the match – Pakistan vs Sri Lanka ?

Given their overall sojourn till now in the CWC and the strength of their line-up paired with the weather conditions, it’s a match which favour Pakistan. Wahab, Amir and Shabad Khan will get the ball to sing to their tunes on a surface which is certain to have a solid green cover being left on it.

Pakistan have shown that if they want, they can get set in the middle and chart their way to massive innings. The pitch will settle down once the new ball loses its sheen and if Sri Lanka fail to make early inroads, they’ll be left chasing the match throughout. We see Pakistan coming out of this match with a win and maintaining their record against Sri Lanka at the tournament.