Afghanistan stunned New Zealand and pulled off a huge upset. While anyone can beat anyone in T20 cricket on a given day, it is the way NZ batters succumbed to slow bowling that worried many. Afghan bowlers just did not let one NZ batter to even rotate the strike to negate their effect. Hence Afghanistan pulled off a stunning and massive 84 run victory against New Zealand in their T20 World Cup 2024 fixture.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first. In form openers of Afghanistan, Ibrahim Zadran(44) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz have put on 103-run partnership for the first wicket in 14 overs. Even though they got big platform, Afghan batters could not run away with the match. Gurbaz scored a great 80 and Azmatullah Omarzai scored 22, while rest of them all failed. Afghanistan scored only 159/6 from their 20 overs.
In the chase, New Zealand lost Finn Allen for the first ball bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi. Rest of the batters struggled to score and only Glenn Phillips(18), Matt Henry(12) could score in double digits. Kane Williamson(9) got out to Rashid Khan and that triggered a massive collapse. Stunningly, NZ never ever looked in the game and got dominated by their opponent throughout.
Rashid Khan took 4/17 in his four overs while Fazalhaq Farooqi started and finished NZ innings with 4/17, too. Mohammad Nabi took remaining 2 wickets. Well, the pitches have been a concern but this sort of submissive batting isn’t anticipated or expected from New Zealand. But many are happy for Afghanistan for such a huge win.