Both Ireland and Afghanistan gave giants New Zealand and Australia a scare in their respective final games of the T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12s stage on Friday in Adelaide. However, the two semifinal hopefuls were good enough to prevail by the end of the double-header night.
Ireland found themselves 68 for no loss chasing New Zealand’s imposing 185/6, but the moment skipper Andrew Balbirnie (30) and his opening partner Paul Stirling (37) departed, they collapsed miserably. From looking like giving the Kiwis a run for their money, the Irishmen conceded their last eight wickets for just 82 runs to lose the fixture by 35.
It was the bowling that let them down, forcing their middle-order men to take risks with the bat from the word go. The only real shining light was left-arm pacer Joshua Little, who took a hat-trick near the close of the Kiwi innings to finish with figures of 3 for 22. He was easily Ireland’s biggest positive of the competition.
The Black Caps came up with an all-round display with ball in hand. While Lockie Ferguson led the pack with 3 for 22, he was given ample support by Tim Southee (2/29), Ish Sodhi (2/26) and Ish Sodhi (2/31). For New Zealand, however, the biggest gain of the day was Kane Williamson. Struggling in earlier games, he produced a knock of 61 off 35 balls.
New Zealand could seal their semifinal slot the moment it got affirmed that neither Australia nor England can surpass them on NRR in case of a three-way tie on 7 points. Australia did reach there with a win over the Afghans, but only just.
Four runs separated the spirited Afghanistan side from them at the Adelaide Oval after Rashid Khan showed off his undoubted batting ability in a rearguard counter-attack through his unbeaten 48 off 23 balls. He took Afghanistan as close as 164/7 to Australia’s middling 168/8.
At one stage, Afghanistan were 99 for 2 at the start of the 14th over with quickfire thirties from Rahmanullah Gurbaz (30) and Gulbadin Naib (39). But they failed to carry on their good work and lost four wickets in the space of two overs. They will look at that with regret, as despite Rashid’s batting assault, they missed out on what would’ve been the upset of the tournament.
The Australians would have been in deep trouble if not for Glenn Maxwell’s timely return to form with 54 off 32 balls. It was his knock that gave the hosts a score near the 170-mark when they could’ve easily faltered below 150. Afghanistan bowled superbly on the day, with seamers Naveen-ul-Haq (3/21) and Fazalhaq Farooqi (2/29) being their stand-out performers.
