TAUNTON – New Zealand humbled Afghanistan by 7 wickets in an apparently easy encounter of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 on Saturday.
While batting first, the Afghan side crumbled early on and posted merely 172 runs on the board; Afghanistan’s team got bowled out in 42nd over.
For Afghanistan, Hazratullah Zazai scored 34 runs while Hashmatullah Shahidi posted 59 runs. On the other hand, James Neesham took five wickets trailed by Lockie Ferguson who sent 4 to the pavilion.
In response, Kiwis clinched the target in 33rd over as Kane Williamson scored 80 runs while Ross Taylor contributed 48; Aftab Alam took 3 wickets for Afghanistan.
The Kiwis are still unbeaten in the tournament so far and are sitting on top of the points table while Afghanistan are also displaying quality skill in the tournament.
“We are going to have a bowl. A fresh wicket and looks like a good wicket. Little bit of overhead as well. It is nice to have a couple of wins in front of us. But we have to adapt to what is in front of us – a new side, new ground and new surface. Those would be the important factors. It was (tough) but at the same time it was nice to get across the line and when you do, there are learnings from those experiences. We can build on that and bring them into this game. They are all (injured players) tracking really nicely but there are no changes for us today,” said Kane Williamson.
On the other hand, Afghanistan’s skipper said the surface won’t matter much as they have to play positive cricket at the end of the day.
“We have three changes – Dawlat is resting and Aftab comes in, Noor Ali plays his first game and I forgot the last change. We need to do nothing different. We have to get a good start and not give away wickets in the first 10 overs,” he detailed.
Teams
Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Noor Ali Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib(c), Najibullah Zadran, Ikram Alikhil(w), Rashid Khan, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson(c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham(w), James Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
