Cricket Highlights, 19 Oct: ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 (Match 16) – New Zealand vs Afghanistan: The Kiwis have kept the top spot in the points table with four consecutive wins.

New Zealand vs Afghanistan (Match 16) – Highlights

Afghanistan got their first World Cup victory by defeating England in the previous match. That victory also gave some confidence to Hashmatullah Shahidi’s team. But the earned confidence did not last in front of New Zealand. Tom Latham’s army has secured four consecutive victories in the World Cup by blowing away the Afghans. As a result, they are on the top of the points table with 8 points.

New Zealand won by 149 runs against Afghanistan on Wednesday (October 18). After scoring 288 at the start, the Kiwis bowled out Afghanistan for 139 runs in 34.4 overs. Mitchell Santner and Lockie Ferguson picked up 3 wickets each in the mission to withstand the Afghans.

Afghanistan got an easy target at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Chasing the target, they scored 27 runs in the opening pair. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (11) was bowled by Matt Henry. Another opener Ibrahim Zadran (14) departed before the number of runs on the scoreboard changed. Captain Hashmatullah left the field scoring only 8 runs. But Rahmat Shah took the authority.

Rahmat made a partnership of 54 runs with Azmatullah Omarzai. Azmatullah returned with a catch to Latham off Trent Boult. He scored 27 runs off 32 balls. Rahmat departed for 36 runs after being caught and bowled by Rachin Ravindra.

After that, none other than the wicket-keeper batsman Ikram Alikhil could stand tall for Afghanistan. Rashid Khan scored 8, Mohammad Nabi made 7, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman got 4 runs. Alikhil remained unbeaten on 19 runs. Apart from Santner and Ferguson, Boult snapped up 2 wickets. Henry and Ravindra got one wicket each.

Earlier, after losing the toss and getting to bat first, New Zealand collected 288 runs by losing 6 wickets in the scheduled 50 overs courtesy of Glenn Phillips and captain Latham’s half-centuries. The two New Zealand openers, Devon Conway and Will Young were playing well after making a cautious beginning. After adding 30 runs in 6 overs, New Zealand lost their wicket in the third ball of the seventh over.

Conway scored 18 runs off 20 balls and got LBW by Mujeeb. In the second wicket partnership, Ravindra and Young added 79 runs. At that time, it seemed that the Kiwis were going to get a score of 300. But Azmatullah was on fire. He snapped up two wickets. Ravindra was bowled in the second ball of the 21st over. He scored 32 runs off 41 balls with 2 fours and 1 six.

Young was caught on the last ball of the same over behind the wicket. However, he smashed a half-century before that. He hit 4 fours and 3 sixes on his way to 54 runs off 64 balls. In the next over, Rashid came and sent back the dangerous Daryl Mitchell. This dangerman scored only 1 run in 7 balls. New Zealand was on the back foot after losing 3 wickets to score only 1 run.

At this time, two new batting captains Latham and Phillips took the helm of the team. They added 144 runs in an outstanding partnership of 153 balls. Both made half-centuries. The pair broke when Phillips became a victim of Naveen-ul-Haq after playing an innings of 71 runs from 80 balls hitting 4 fours and sixes. Latham was also bowled on the third ball of the same over by Naveen. The Kiwi skipper played a great innings of 68 runs off 74 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes.

Mark Chapman raised a storm with the bat towards the end. He played a cameo innings of 25 runs off 12 balls with 2 fours and 1 six. Santner remained unbeaten with 7 runs. Naveen and Azmatullah scalped 2 wickets each for Afghanistan. Rashid and Mujeeb got one wicket each.

New Zealand vs Afghanistan Scoreboard

New Zealand – 288/6 (50.0)

Afghanistan – 139/10 (34.4)

Result – New Zealand won by 149 runs

Player of the match – Glenn Phillips

New Zealand

New Zealand vs Afghanistan Playing XIs