The T20 World Cup just has started, but we have witnessed two big upsets so far in this tournament. New Zealand has always been a favorite in any international tournaments of Cricket. But they were completely destroyed by the underdog Afghanistan.
For the last few years, the cricket world has seen the rise of Afghanistan. They also made a flying start in this T20 World Cup. After a dominant win in their opening match against Uganda, the Afghans continues their aggression and has demolished New Zealand today at Providence Stadium.
Match Report
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and opted to bowl first against Afghanistan. Therefore, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran came into the crease to start the innings for the Afghans. The two Afghans’ openers had a flying start, dominating the Kiwi bowling lineup.
New Zealand has one of the best bowling lineups in this World Cup but was very ordinary in front of two Afghani openers.
Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran made a partnership of 103 runs before Matt Henry bowled out Zadran (44) in the 14.3 over. However, Rahmanullah Gurbaz continued hitting boundaries and made another partnership of 23 runs with Azmatullah Omarzai. But Matt Henry dismissed Omarzai and brought New Zealand back into the match. Additionally, Trent Boult stopped the aggressive Gurbaz in his 80 runs. Relying on Gurbaz, Afghanistan posted a total of 159 runs in 20 overs.
Chasing the target, New Zealand had a nightmare as they lost their first wicket in the very first ball. Afghan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi bowled out Finn Allen before he picked up Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell within the powerplay. Farooqi bagged three wickets in just four overs to destroy New Zealand’s batting order.
Moreover, Rashid Khan joined with Farooqi in taking the Kiwi wickets. He picked up the Kane Williamson, the most important wicket, in the 7th over. Like Farooqi, Rashid Khan also got three crucial wickets of New Zealand. After all, New Zealand could not fight back after losing early wickets. They became all-out in just 75 runs, resulting in Afghanistan winning the match by 84 runs.
Afghan captain Rashid Khan shared his thoughts on winning this big match, which put them into the top of the table. He said, “One of our best T20 performances from us, especially against a big team like New Zealand. The wicket wasn’t easy to score, Gurbaz and Ibrahim batted really well, it was a superb performance with the bat, ball and the field. I’m really happy to be leading this team.”
On the other side, Kiwi captain Kane Williamson accepted their defeat against Afghanistan and congratulated them. “First congrats to AFG, they simply outplayed us in all facets. To get to that total on that surface, they kept their wickets and made a good score. We’ll have to put this behind quickly and get back to our next challenge,” the Kiwi captain stated.
