New Zealand is playing as if they have arrived to win this CWC 2023. In 2015, 2019 they have reached to the Finals and in 2019 lost to England due to boundaries difference. New Zealand is playing like a champion in 2023. India is the only other team to have won three of their matches. New Zealand has now won 4 of their matches and crushed Afghanistan.
Afghanistan after their big win against England wanted to trouble New Zealand. They won the toss and chose to field first. Actually, if they had chosen to bat first, they might have had upper hand with ball spinning square at Chennai. New Zealand spinners found more assistance and they ordered a collapse of Afghanistan batting order in the chase. Even though they won comprehensively, New Zealand did have a stutter in their batting.
After a decent start, they lost Will Young(54), Rachin Ravindra(32) and in-form Daryl Mitchell(1) quickly. CSK home boy, Devon Conway could only score 20. New Zealand looked in big trouble with 110/4 on the board in 22 overs. Tom Latham(68) and Glenn Phillips(71) studied the ship and took their team to a reasonable total.
Mark Chapman(25) blows in the end pushed New Zealand score to 288/6 in 50 overs. Naveen-ul-Haq(2/48), Azmatullah Omarzai(2/56), Rashid Khan(1/43) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman(1/57) took wickets for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has been brought to the ground by New Zealand within no time, in the chase. Rahmat Shah(36), Azmatullah Omarzai(27) and Ikram Alikhil(19) could only resist for sometime. Lockie Ferguson(3/19), Mitchell Santner(3/39), Trent Boult(2/18), Matt Henry(1/16) and Rachin Ravindra(1/34) did not allow Afghanistan batters to settle.
New Zealand won the match by 149 runs with 15.2 overs remaining. Afghanistan got bundled out for 139 in 34.4 overs. New Zealand are back on top of the table with 8 points while India will play Bangladesh on 19th October to challenge their spot.
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