West Indies vs Afghanistan Prediction: Co-hosts to suffer St Lucia setback

The West Indies and Afghanistan will each attempt to maintain their 100 per cent records in the last Group C clash before they enter the Super 8s.

The game takes place in St. Lucia, where surfaces have been friendlier to batters than most in this T20 World Cup with three totals of 180 or more in four innings so far.

Match odds

West Indies are 1/2 to clinch a fourth consecutive group stage victory with Afghanistan priced at 13/8 to maintain their winning momentum.

The tournament co-hosts are available at 3/10 to hit the most sixes in the match, while the Blue Tigers are priced at 13/10 to have the Highest 1 Overs Score.

Afghanistan to win @ 13/8

Both teams are unbeaten heading into this clash but Afghanistan’s results in this group have arguably been more convincing than the co-hosts.

Whereas the West Indies took 19 overs to chase down Papua New Guinea’s total, the Blue Tigers reeled off their victory in 15 overs.

They made 183-5 batting first against Uganda, which was 10 more runs than the Caribbean team managed against the same opponents.

And they beat New Zealand by a mammoth 84-run margin a few days before the West Indies squeezed home by 13 runs against the Black Caps.

Daren Sammy’s side are favoured to get the win on home soil here, but Afghanistan have been playing some superb cricket and look better value in the win market.

Fazalhaq Farooqi - Afghanistan Top Wicket Taker @ 12/5

Afghanistan enlisted the services of West Indian legend Dwayne Bravo as bowling consultant for this tournament and the move already looks to be paying off.

The Trinidadian, who has taken more wickets in T20 international cricket than anybody else, has passed on a few pearls of wisdom to Afghanistan’s bowlers, with one in particular proving to be a revelation for the Blue Tigers.

Fazalhaq Farooqi is currently the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 12 scalps. That is three more than any other player ahead of Monday’s matches and six more than team-mate and captain Rashid Khan.

Farooqi’s swing and left-arm angle will be a problem for the West Indies batters and he will no doubt have plenty of information on them at his disposal from picking the brains of Bravo, who he has played alongside in franchise cricket for several years.

Nicholas Pooran - West Indies Top Run Scorer @ 3/1

Pooran has made three good starts in this tournament, but has yet to put together the sort of game-changing innings that he has become known for over the past couple of years.

The left-hander made 27 against Papua New Guinea, 22 in the win over Uganda and 17 versus New Zealand.

He came into the tournament off the back of a very good Indian Super League campaign where he scored 48 not out, 61 and 75 in his final three innings for Lucknow Super Giants.

Pooran is a brilliant player of both orthodox leg-spin and left-arm spin with a career strike rate of over 165 against the sort of bowling that the Afghanistan team has in abundance.

He certainly appears to prefer facing Asian attacks with his three highest T20 international averages coming against Bangladesh (53.5), India (32.9) and Pakistan (29.7), so he should be looking forward to facing Afghanistan for the first time.

Cricket Betting Tips from Betfred Insights.