Chunai (India) : Oct 18 :In the World Cup 2023, New Zealand defeated Afghanistan by 149 runs thanks to the excellent batting of captain Tom Latham and Glenn Phillips and achieved their fourth consecutive victory. Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bowl first in the match played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
In the second over of the match, Afghanistan got a chance to take the wicket of Will Young, who replaced Kane Williamson, but Rahmat Shah, standing at slip on Fazalul Haq’s ball, failed to take the catch.
The openers gave the team a 30-run start but on the same score, Mujeebur Rahman walked Dion Conway, the field umpire did not declare Conway LBW, on which Afghanistan decided to take a review, which proved to be correct. After that, Richan Ravindra came to support Young and Mujeeb got a chance to take his wicket soon but skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi missed the opportunity to dismiss Ravindra before opening the account and dropped the catch.
Ravindra and Young took full advantage of the opportunity and combined to take the score to 105, but at this point Afghanistan missed another opportunity and could not stump the wicketkeeper Ravindra off Rashid’s ball. However, in the very next over, Azmatullah ended Ravindra’s innings of 32 runs by bowling Ravindra without taking any fielder’s help. The Kiwi team was not even able to recover from this loss when on the last ball of the same over,
Azmatullah gave his team an important victory and dismissed Will Young who played an innings of 54 runs. In the very next over, Rashid Khan also struck a blow and dismissed the in-form Daryl Mitchell and shook the Kiwis’ batting line. With 4 wickets down for 110 runs, the New Zealand team looked in trouble but at this stage, Colin Phillips came in to support captain Tom Latham and both managed their team’s innings for once. At this stage, the Afghan bowlers showed some sloppy bowling which can be gauged from the fact that after 18.1 overs, the next boundary came on the fifth ball of the 29th over.
Afghanistan then had chances to dismiss Tom Latham for totals of 191 and 202, but failed to catch fielder Rashid Khan both times. The two players then started to play relatively openly and put on a partnership of 144 runs for the fifth wicket to bring their team back into the match. At the total score of 254, Naveen-ul-Haq finally ended the partnership, sending Phillips back to the pavilion with 71 runs with the help of 4 sixes and 4 fours, and then Latham’s innings ended with 68 runs a ball later.
In the final over, Chapman went on the offensive and scored 25 off 12 balls as New Zealand posted 288 for 6 in the allotted overs. New Zealand’s aggressive batting in the closing overs can be gauged from the fact that they scored 78 runs in the last six overs.
On behalf of Afghanistan, Naveen and Azmatullah took two wickets each while Mujeeb and Rashid got one wicket each. Chasing the target, openers Rehmanullah Garbaz and Ibrahim Zadran provided a 27-run opening but Matt Henry bowled Garbaz on a beautiful in-swing ball. The Afghan team was not even able to cope with the loss that Trent Boult also walked Ibrahim on the first ball of the next over. Rehmat Shah and Heshmatullah Shahidi had taken the score to 43 when Mitchell Santner’s brilliant catch forced the Afghan captain to return to the pavilion. At this stage, Azmatullah Umarzai came to support Rahmat and both of them batted well and formed the biggest innings partnership of 54 runs for the fourth wicket, but on the same score, Bolt used his experience and Azmatullah. Ended the innings of 27 runs. The score had reached 107 when Rahmat’s courage was answered and after scoring 36 runs, he took an easy catch off Richan Ravindra’s ball and walked away. Mohammad Nabi’s bad batting form continued and he too was bowled by Santner after scoring 7 runs leaving his team in trouble. Ikram Akhili played an unbeaten innings of 19 runs, but the Afghan tail-enders proved to be a wall of sand in front of Santner and Ferguson from the other end and the last four players returned to the pavilion with just five runs added.
The entire Afghanistan team was bowled out for just 139 runs and New Zealand won the match by 149 runs. For New Zealand, Ferguson and Santner took three wickets each while Boult took two wickets. Glenn Phillips, who played an innings of 71 runs off 80 balls with the help of 4 sixes and four fours, was declared the best player of the match. Both the teams for the match consisted of these players. Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rehmanullah Garbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Ali Khel, Azmatullah Umarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujibur Rehman, Naveen Haq. Fazlul Haq Farooqui
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain, wicketkeeper), Dion Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
