T20 World Cup Match Prediction: Afghanistan versus Scotland. 17th Match. Who Will Win?

Afghanistan will start their 2021 T20 World Cup campaign with a match against Scotland, who were the most impressive team in the first stage of the competition. They were able to pull of the biggest upset so far by defeating Bangladesh, and earned the right to be playing in the Super 12 Stage.

Who will win this match? Read this T20 World Cup prediction and find out our views.

Afghanistan Team Preview

Afghanistan had two warm-up matches and they had very different results in these. In their first game, they lost by 45 runs to South Africa, while in the second they dominated a strong West Indies side. Afghanistan used to be an associate nation not too long ago, and have played the Scots plenty of times, so they definitely will not go into this encounter underestimating them.

The conditions that will be on offer in Sharjah will suit the Afghanistan team a lot more than the Scotland team. The Afghan spin trio of Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, and Mujeeb ur Rahman will be hard to get away, and this is where they have a big advantage over the Scots. When it comes to the Top Bowler market for Afghanistan, many would bet on Khan, but we think Mujeeb is a good choice too.

The Afghanistan batting lineup is very inconsistent - they have opted for Mohammad Shazad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Hazratullah Zazai. This is an explosive batting lineup, so going for Afghanistan to score more runs in the powerplay is another bet that could pay dividends. However, due to their inconsistencies, they could flop.

Scotland Team Preview

Scotland were excellent in Stage 1 of the T20 World Cup. They have won all three of their games, and the most impressive aspect has been their bowling attack. Josh Davey has been superb and has eight wickets under his belt, while the likes of Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, and Bradley Wheal have also been really good. In our view, betting on Greaves to be Scotland's top wicket taker in this match is a wise choice. The surface is going to be helpful for the spinners, so the Afghan batters will look to take Greaves on.

The main problem that Scotland will have is adjusting to the slow Sharjah conditions and getting on top of the Afghan attack. The batsmen that could do this are Callum MacLeod, and Richie Berrington. The latter has been in fine form, so you would not be doing yourself any harm by betting on him to be Scotland's top scorer in this game.

Toss Prediction

The captain that goes ahead and wins the coin toss is more than likely going to opt to bowl first. This is an advantage because it has been quite tricky to set a score at this ground. We would be quite surprised if the winning captain opted to bat first.

Pitch Conditions

In the previous match at this stadium, the conditions were quite slow but much better for batting than many expected. However, it is still a surface that offers plenty of assistance to the spin bowlers, and this will not change in this game. In fact, it is possible that the surface is even slow than the last match, making it hard to score. The team that bats first will look to score somewhere around 140.

Our Match Prediction

Afghanistan have a couple of advantages over the Scots when it comes to getting runs in the important powerplay. The first advantage is that their top three batsmen are very aggressive, while the second is that their bowlers are better at being able to keep opposing players quiet. Thus, with this in mind, we think Afghanistan will have enough to give the Scots their first defeat of the competition.

Our match prediction: