In recent years, the Afghanistan team has been proving itself in ICC tournaments. Continuing this trend, Rashid Khan and his team have shown remarkable performances in the ongoing T20 World Cup. In their first match, Afghanistan bowled out Uganda for 56 runs and secured a massive 125-run victory.
Today, in their second match, Afghanistan bowled out New Zealand for 75 runs. With a challenging target of 159 runs, Afghanistan won by a margin of 84 runs, showcasing a dominant performance.
Chasing the 160-run target set by Afghanistan, New Zealand was under pressure from the start. They lost wickets at regular intervals. Neither Kane Williamson nor Daryl Mitchell could stay at the crease.
The New Zealand batsmen struggled against Fazalhaq Farooqi and Rashid Khan. Rashid Khan took 4 wickets and Farooqi took 3 wickets. Glenn Phillips was the top scorer for New Zealand with 18 runs.
Earlier, after losing the toss and being sent to bat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran built a significant partnership of 103 runs. Ibrahim was dismissed after scoring 44 runs off 41 balls.
After this partnership was broken, Afghanistan couldn’t take much advantage as they lost 5 wickets while adding only 55 more runs. Coming in at number three, Azmatullah Omarzai scored 22 runs off 13 balls. Gurbaz played a brilliant innings, scoring 80 runs off 56 balls, hitting 5 fours and 5 sixes. Trent Boult broke Gurbaz’s stumps on the second ball of the 20th over. No other batsman could reach double figures.
For New Zealand, Trent Boult and Matt Henry each took 2 wickets.
