Gayle vs Mujeeb in ODIs:
7 balls
2 runs
2 dismissals
SR 28.57

Emotional moments for Chris Gayle, who's all likely to play his final World Cup game. West Indies players greet him with handshakes and bear hugs. The Universe Boss, no matter what's the occasion, always wears an effervescent smile on his face. Teams march out for national anthems. First, West Indies', followed by Afghanistan's. Done with the formalities. Afghanistan break out of the huddle while West Indies openers wait near the sidelines ready to step out. All eyes will be on the big man from Jamaica. West Indies fans give a standing ovation, are we going to witness a 'Gaylestorm' today? Afghanistan stick to their strengths and begin with spin. Mujeeb is talking to his skipper, one slip in place and play says the umpire. Long-on and deep mid-wicket are the fielders outside the ring.

Teams:

West Indies (Playing XI): Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder(c), Carlos Brathwaite, Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas, Kemar Roach

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib(c), Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shinwari, Najibullah Zadran, Ikram Ali Khil(w), Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Sayed Shirzad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Gulbadin Naib: I would have wanted to bat first as well. It gets good for the spinners later on. We played really well in the last few games. We will try to play hard. We have two changes. Hamid Hassan and Shahidi are not playing. Dawlat Zadran and Shirzad are playing.

West Indies have won the toss and have opted to bat

Jason Holder: We are gonna bat first. Seems to be a pretty good wicket. It tends to slow down as the game goes on. Just look at this game and try to finish the competition well. We have one last oppurtunity and need to get a perfect game together. Two changes for us. Evin Lewis and Kemar Roach come in for and Sunil Ambris and Shannon Gabriel.

Kaushik pings: Kemar Roach is marking his run-up. So he has fully recovered from his illness it would seem. Also Oshane...

Pitch report by Sanjay Manjrekar: It looks white. It is a suggestion it is a good batting wicket. Minor sort of cracks to suggest some dryness. It seems hard enough. The captain winning the toss would want to bat first. If the seam lands on the surface, there might be some seam movement as well. But looks like a bat first pitch.

This is Kumar Abhisekh Das trying to pump in some excitement into a game which could have been far more entertaining had it stayed true to some context. But both the teams know how to entertain and another good contest should be on the cards. And we have got the first ping from our man, Kaushik, "Good morning from Leeds, bright and sunny here". And and and, 'Have your Say' has been pressed into action. So, type your way to glory.

Afghanistan have had issues of their own. Their skipper for a long time - Asghar Afghan - was sacked just before the World Cup,. Gulbadin Naib had too much to do and as we saw he did crumble in their game against Pakistan. Moreover, Mohammad Shahzad and Aftab Alam were sent back home. Where as MS had some injury which wasn't really clarified, Aftab was sent back on disciplinary grounds. That didn't do any good to the team morale. Zazai at the top of the order also wasn't persisted with. And the flurry of runs in the absence of MS and Zazai never came. Their pacers have been tossed around but haven't had too much of success.

Of course there have been positives for both the sides. The tons from Carlos Brathwaite and Nicholas Pooran suggests all is not gloom for the Windies team. They have the potential to grow into a more threatening team over a consistent period of time. They have the skills, the mental ability has to follow. Afghanistan have had Mujeeb doing really well for them in the last few games. Their batting has been a bit of let down but they would certainly demand more from their batters today to put on one final act! They haven't opened their account in the tournament and would be itching to go out there and get a win under their belt.

Afghanistan on the other hand have been about near misses as well. They ran Sri Lanka close, India closer and Pakistan closest. But the lack of killer instinct pegged them back. Both West Indies and Afghanistan had to play the qualifiers to enter the main draw and they were the first ones to be knocked out. This single round robin format was made to ensure that the games are competitive and no one gets an easy draw. And that is exactly what happened. Over the course of the tournament, both these teams have failed to carry on from whatever momentum they gathered.

9:10 AM local, 13:40 PM IST: West Indies's campaign has ended and so Afghanistan's. But West indies did inflict one body blow to Pakistan. They hammered them in their first game, which seems a long time back now, and that in turn did two things for the Pakistan unit. They lost to a team they were may be expected to beat and their NRR took a heavy beating. Thus, today's game and tomorrow's game, courtesy that WI win, are dead rubbers. Pakistan's chances of course relies on miraculous things. So, may be technically we can refrain from using the word 'dead rubber' for tomorrow. But Windies's sojourn in the tourney has been more about 'what could have been' but is going to end on the 'not again' note. The emotions during a West Indies game did swing from one extreme to another, but the final result almost all the times brought in the feeling of despair.

Preview by Kaushik Rangarajan

"Did I entertain you?," were the famous first words of Brian Lara, the retired international cricketer, after West Indies bowed out of the 2007 World Cup in Barbados. If Jason Holder's side were to ask the same question tomorrow, at the end of another campaign, they'd likely receive a good degree of response in the affirmative. But merely entertaining never compares to winning.

A little over a month ago, when they'd bulldozed Pakistan and then ran Australia close, there was a genuine injection of optimism around the team's chances in the tournament. But that progressively fizzled with each near miss, leaving that win at Trent Bridge on May 31 as the side's only victory so far.

Meanwhile, their last opponents, Afghanistan, are still waiting to break their duck, having taken a few trips down the oh-so-close route themselves. Gulbadin Naib still feels rotten about starting in UK's South West in the early summer, where his batting was blown away on green tops and his spinners were rendered ineffective. Because when conditions tempered, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan nearly setup wins over India, Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively, underscoring their team's steadily growing status in the modern game.

Quite what West Indies make of this maverick Afghanistan team is anyone's guess. But what Holder would give to have a Nabi or a Rashid Khan sustaining the heat generated by the fast bowlers through the middle overs. Afghanistan themselves would take these quicks in their XI without as much as batting an eyelid. They could also do with a Nicholas Pooran or a Shimron Hetmyer to add some oomph to a sedate line-up. These are, of course, fantasy permutations, but they do serve to highlight a common thread: Both sides, talented as they maybe, are still some way off from transitioning their successful T20 methodologies to an extended 50-over format.

They'll have another four-year cycle via the new ICC ODI league, starting next year, to crack the code, provided they can find consistency, both on and off the field. Before they get to that though, they'll want to close out - ironically neither team's strength - this World Cup with a win. On current form, West Indies may be slight favourites, but Afghanistan know how to nullify their batting fire with spin, having done so twice in the World Cup Qualifiers last year. One last time at this World Cup then, for these two chaotic entertainers.

When: West Indies vs Afghanistan, CWC19, July 4, 10:30 Local, 15:00 IST

Where: Headingley, Leeds

What to expect: A pleasant, sunny day in Leeds. As in the last game here between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the spinners will come into the game as the matche progresses and therefore both captains will prefer to bat first.

Team News:

West Indies

Darren Bravo had a long batting stint on the eve of the game and could come in for Sunil Ambris, who hasn't had the best of two games so far. That would mean pushing Shai Hope back to the top - a risky move that'll leave West Indies fielding three left-handers against Mujeeb in the middle-order. Given the turn on offer in the last game at Headingley, West Indies will also consider pairing Fabian Allen with Ashley Nurse, at the cost of one of the fast bowlers.

Probable XI: Chris Gayle, Sunil Ambris/Darren Bravo, Shai Hope (wk), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Carlos Brathwaite, Jason Holder (c), Fabian Allen, Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell, Ashley Nurse/Shannon Gabriel

Afghanistan

Afghanistan continued to play roulette with their batting order, playing Ikram Ali Khil at No.4 against Pakistan. The young keeper-batsman batted 11 overs for his 24, sucking the momentum out of the innings. Afghanistan will be better served getting the likes of Najibullah Zadran more overs to bat in the middle-order. They'll have at least one enforced change following the injured Hamid Hassan's retirement at the end of last game. Dawlat Zadran should come back in to the XI.

B6$ Gulbadin Naib (c), Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Ikram Ali Khil (wk), Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Did you know?

- Chris Gayle is 18 runs away from going past Brian Lara to become the leading run-getter for West Indies in ODIs.

- Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who took seven wickets in the two games against West Indies in the Qualifiers, has six wickets from four games at 23.83 since returning to the XI

- West Indies have the lowest average among opening pairs (11.14) in CWC19. Afghanistan are just above them with an average first-wicket stand of 29.87

What they said:

"Looking back at the eight games we've played, I personally thought we should have won four of those, we were very close. We just didn't play the big moments well. Hopefully we can learn from that and prepare for the next one." - Assistant coach Roddy Estwick believes West Indies are building something special in the 50-over format as well.

"West Indies is one of those danger sides, nobody expects how they will play. For us it is a World Cup game. So every game is very important for us. It all depends on our batting. If we can put a good total then it is difficult for other teams on this kind of turning surfaces. " - Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib is hopeful his team can sign off with a victory.

Teams:

Afghanistan (From): Rahmat Shah, Gulbadin Naib(c), Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shinwari, Najibullah Zadran, Ikram Ali Khil(w), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hamid Hassan, Sayed Shirzad, Dawlat Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Noor Ali Zadran

West Indies (From): Chris Gayle, Sunil Ambris, Shai Hope(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder(c), Carlos Brathwaite, Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas, Shannon Gabriel, Darren Bravo, Ashley Nurse, Evin Lewis, Kemar Roach