India’s hopes to make the T20 World Cup semi-finals rested big time on Afghanistan’s shoulders but their Asian brethren couldn’t quite live up to those, losing a one-sided encounter to New Zealand on Sunday in Abu Dhabi to be out of the semi-finals race along with the Indians.
The Kiwis, who have now gone 34 matches without losing to a nation outside the traditional top 8 sides in World Cup history (both ODIs and T20Is), added one more scalp to their tally and enhanced their tag as bullies of such teams.
Afghanistan had their moments, but the Black Caps ultimately proved too good for them in a high-pressure game where they had to win or else would’ve depended on Namibia to beat India. Winning by eight wickets gave NZ a second-place finish in the Group 2 points table and secured their place in the first semi-final on Wednesday against England in Abu Dhabi.
On the day, their pacers did the major damage against an Afghanistan batting line-up that looked alright against the spinners but was, again, found wanting on the technical front against the quick men.
Trent Boult (3/17) and Tim Southee (2/24) were the chief destroyers, be it at the start of the Afghan innings or near the close of it. The two experienced quicks seam and swung the ball to great effect as none of the Afghan batters looked like countering them. Barring one.
For so long now, middle-order bat Najibullah Zadran has been Afghanistan’s darkhorse, their everyday hero who mostly slips under the radar. But here he was, the main star for his team. The left-hand batter was the only Afghanistan player to look comfortable enough against the Kiwi pacers.
He struck an admirable 73 off 48 balls, including six fours and three sixes, to keep the Afghan innings going even as the rest just collapsed around him. Najib not only kept his team intact in the game but, just for a little while, maintained hope in the Indian camp and the billion fans here.
It was him whose knock helped Afghanistan steer past the 120-mark when they could’ve easily been 100 all out on another day. In a sorry looking scorecard, only two other Afghan batters made it into double digits.
Kiwi spinners Ish Sodhi (0/27) and Mitchell Santner (0/13) had a challenging day, mostly because of the left-handedness and the overall impressive ability of Najibullah. But because the Boult-Southee duo, ably supported by speedster Adam Milne (1/17) and James Neesham (1/24), were superb throughout, New Zealand still managed to stay in the ascendancy.
In the run-chase, they opted for a more sedate approach, identifying Afghanistan’s spin trio of Rashid-Mujeeb-Nabi as a threat and looking to cut down risks against them. This approach, encouraged by an unchallenging asking rate, helped nullify their effect as Rashid (1/27), Mujeeb (1/31) and Nabi (0/26) weren’t allowed to build inroads.
Daryl Mitchell (17) and Martin Guptill (28) gave their team a nice start before skipper Kane Williamson (40*) and Devon Conway (36*) gained control of the proceedings and took their team through with a sensible partnership of 68 runs for the third wicket.
New Zealand eventually reached the winning post with nearly two overs left in the proceedings, as once they kept the Afghan spin trio at bay, there wasn’t much of a challenge from opposition pacers ever in the run-chase.
One great positive for the Kiwis is that their skipper and the best batter is now beginning to overcome his elbow issue and is looking in good shape with his batting ahead of the knock-outs.
Brief scores
Afghanistan 124/8 in 20 overs (Zadran 73; Boult 3/17, Southee 2/24) lost to New Zealand 125/2 in 18.1 overs (Williamson 40, Conway; Khan 1/27) by 8 wickets
