Scotland vs Zimbabwe
Transfers made – 2; Transfers remaining – 16
William Porterfield out – Vusi Sibanda in
Kevin O Brien out – Kyle Coetzer in
Captain – Hamilton Masakadza
With both the teams light on bowling and possessing in-form, exciting batsmen, I expect a fair amount of runs to be scored – and that basically rules out any bowlers involved in this fixture from getting into my team. Not that any of them did exceptionally well in their first match of the tournament to push for an inclusion anyway.
Of the changes mentioned in the second article, I got all of them in, but made a change in one of the players going out for them: took out Tom Cooper instead of Richie Berrington, as the Dutch player did not get a chance to bowl. I can’t afford to keep a No.4/5 player in the team just for his batting unless he is AB de Villiers.
If you don’t have Berrington, it’s not necessary to bring him in. You need to be extremely unlucky to get screwed by him, so peace with that.
While in my two years of doing this Fantasy Guru series, I have never made a drastic change from the ones suggested here, I would advise you to react based on what you see, and not go by the article always. Generally, you would also find me explaining the reason for getting a player in/out; if you don’t find that situation, do the opposite of what’s required. Speaking of which, I must admit I was lucky to escape unhurt by Mahmudullah.
Coming back to the match, among the players I think good enough of returning points (apart from the two I already have in my team) are Vusi Sibanda, Richard Mutumbami, Malcolm Waller, George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer and Matt Machan. I am going to get all of them into my team.
Oh, well, if only that’s so easy. Into the elimination chamber then.
Waller would be the first one to go out, as he doesn’t bowl and you can never know for sure if he will get the deliveries he needs to make an impact. Scotland also have some skillful death bowlers in Josh Davey and Safyaan Sherif, and pace in Alasdair Evans.
Richard Mutumbami’s ‘glorious’ first knock of the tournament means he is likely to be never picked again by any of the fantasy teams, that is of the few who had him in the first match. It is a pretty safe option to have him out. Even if he scores, it is not going to affect a lot.
Matt Machan bats at 4 – he needs to counter the spin-trap of Sikandar Raza and get enough deliveries to make an impact. Not a bad bet, but I am not interested, especially after his scratchy first innings.
It’s a tricky choice between Coetzer and Munsey – both of them are happy-go-lucky players, have weaknesses against all sorts of bowling, as they aren’t compact at the crease. I am going to go with the experience of Coetzer here.
Sibanda, simply, has to play – opens the bat and has 4 40+ scores in his last 8 innings. That’s two of the four in.
Sean Williams is a notable omission. For the last 6 months, the number of overs bowled by him has been consistently getting reduced to a level that I have, now, seen a match or two with him not getting a bowl at all, courtesy of the two new Zimbabwean left-arm tweakers Wellington Masakadza and Tendai Chisoro. And I have had enough of his batting flop shows.
Hamilton Masakadza would again be my captain for this match – safest, and the most destructive, of all the available choices.
Afghanistan vs Hong Kong
Transfers made – 3; Transfers remaining – 13
Kyle Coetzer out – Jamie Atkinson in
Richie Berrington out – Asghar Stanikzai in
Al-Amin Hossain out – Rashid Khan in
Captain – Mohammad Shahzad
With Mohammad Shahzad and Dawlat Zadran already in my team, my interests lie in Asghar Stanikzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, and Jamie Atkinson.
Rashid has been consistently among the wickets, therefore, I draft him in. I also plan to have the leg-spinner as one of my first-choice bowlers, in place of Bangladesh’s Al-Amin Hossain who seems to have lost the confidence of his captain.
Atkinson’s wicketkeeping skills lend him a secondary scoring opportunity, so he gets in.
Stanikzai’s recent form, as discussed in the previous article, forces his way in as well. There is also an option of using him quickly for a couple of matches and throwing him out, with 3 qualifiers remaining after Afghanistan’s last match.
Nabi hasn’t been great fantasy-wise for some time now, so I am going to leave him out. This is quite risky, though, had to be done.
Shahzad will again be my captain for this fixture. While Dawlat had a terrible first match, especially from the fantasy perspective, I would like to stick with him, as there are hardly any in the first stage of the tournament that are better than him when to comes to bankable bowling options.
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