ABU DHABI: As New Zealand has beaten Afghanistan by 8 wickets here on Sunday (7th of Nov) to enter the Semi Finals, India crashed out of the ICC T20 World Cup race.
New Zealand’s skipper Kane Williamson, while chasing the 125-run target set by Afghans, scored 40 while Devon Conway’s bat yielded 36. Kiwis managed to score the required runs in 18.1 overs.
Earlier, Kiwis had restricted Afghanistan to 124/8. Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand. Except Najibullah Zadran, who scored 73 off 48 balls all others failed to face the Kiwi bowlers. Afghan spinner Rashid Khan got his 400th wicket in T20 matches by sending Martin Guptill back to pavilion. He scored 28 runs.
Afghanistan made one change from their loss to India with fit-again spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman back in the XI.
“It’s a day game, so we want to post a decent total on the board,” said Nabi.
With a billion Indians praying for an Afghanistan victory, Nabi insisted his side will “try to win” the match for themselves.
New Zealand were unchanged from their previous victory that was their third in a row after their opening loss to Pakistan, who are already through to the semi-finals from this group.
“We were going to have a bat as well, it’s a used surface,” captain Kane Williamson said at the toss.
“I think both sides have match winners and it’s a mix of youth and experience.”
England and Australia have booked their semi-finals spot from Group 1.
Teams
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson (capt), Devon Conway (wk), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boul
Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi (capt), Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI), Langton Rusere (ZIM)
TV Umpire: Richard Illingworth (ENG)
Match Referee: Javagal Srinath (IND).
Twenty20 World Cup standings as on Sunday 7th of November, 2021:
(played, won, lost, no result, points, net run rate)
Group 1
England 5 4 1 0 8 2.464 — qualified for semi-finals
Australia 5 4 1 0 8 1.216 — qualified for semi-finals
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South Africa 5 4 1 0 8 0.739
Sri Lanka 5 2 3 0 4 -0.269
West Indies 5 1 4 0 2 -1.641
Bangladesh 5 0 5 0 0 -2.383
Group 2
Pakistan 5 5 0 0 10 1.583 — qualified for semi-finals
New Zealand 5 4 1 0 8 1.162 — qualified for semi-finals
India 4 2 2 0 4 1.619
Afghanistan 5 2 3 0 4 1.053
Namibia 4 1 3 0 2 -1.851
Scotland 5 0 5 0 0 -3.543
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