Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan Preview: Lowly ranked sides to battle out for first win.

Mohammad Nabi celebrates with Rashid Khan in their opening World Cup fixture.

Sri Lanka, who were comprehensively beaten by New Zealand in their opening game, will look to come out with a much improved performance when they take on dark horses Afghanistan in the ongoing World Cup at the Cardiff Wales Stadium here on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka did not have the ideal start to their World Cup campaign as they lost by 10 wickets to the Black Caps on Saturday. None of their batsmen – apart from skipper Dimuth Karunaratne who remained unbeaten at 52 – could stand against the hostile bowling from the Kiwi pacers and were bundled out for 136. The bowlers also failed to come up with an inspiring performance and proved ineffective as New Zealand chased down the target in just 16 overs.

Karunaratne's men need to pull up their socks and improve in all the three departments if they want to bounce back against a demoralised Lankan team. However, in order to do that, their openers need to score runs and make sure they set a platform for the lower order, which performed reasonably well against the likes of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in Bristol.

In Rashid Khan, they not only have a world-class spinner, but also a decent batsman who can score big on his day. And they would also be gaining confidence with the performance of fast bowlers Hamid Hasan, who produced a fast, disciplined opening spell against the mighty Australians.

WATCH OUT FOR -

Angelo Matthews will be looking for an improved performance.

Angelo David Matthews. Arguably Sri Lanka's best cricketer in this World Cup squad, alongside Lasith Malinga, these two need to fire for Sri Lanka for a win here. In what is likely to be Angelo's last World Cup, he will be looking for a big showing, and an early tournament match against the former minnows Afghanistan would be the perfect time to start. PREDICTION Both sides will improve on their opening matches, with Afghnistan going in as the underdogs. Expect a closely fought match which could come down to some individual brilliance from any of the 22 players on show. We saw enough out of Afghanistan to lean towards an upset, but it's going to be a cracker of a game. Afghanistan to win by 10-20 runs / 2 wickets

STATISTICS HEAD TO HEAD ODI HEAD TO HEAD IN WORLD CUPS Matches: 3 Matches: 1 Afghanistan: 1 Afghanistan: 0

Sri Lanka: 2 Sri Lanka: 1

WORLD CUP RECORDS

Afghanistan

Matches: 7

Won: 1

Lost: 6

Best Result - Group Stage (2015)

Sri Lanka

Matches: 75

Won: 35

Lost: 36

Tie: 1

Best Result - Winners (1996)

ODI Record since World Cup 2015:

Afghanistan

Matches: 64

Won: 34

Lost: 26

Sri Lanka

Matches: 87

Won: 24

Lost: 56