New Zealand recovered nicely from a mid-innings droop to submit 288 for six towards a gritty Afghanistan within the ICC ODI World Cup match at Chennai on Wednesday.
Will Younger (54), Tom Latham (68) and Glenn Phillips (71) scored half-centuries to make sure that the Black Caps posted an above-par whole on a monitor the place stroke-making is not the best of proposition.
Phillips and Latham placed on 144 invaluable runs for the fifth wicket and it may nicely show to be a game-changer.
Put into bat first, the Kiwis misplaced opener Devon Conway (20) within the seventh over, with spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman trapping him leg-before.
Nonetheless, the pair of opener Younger and in-form batter Rachin Ravindra (32) took cost and placed on a convincing 79-run stand for the second wicket.
Ultimately, it was pacer Azmatullah Omarzai who received the partnership damaged within the twenty first over, cleansing up Ravindra off a straight supply, because the batter tried to swing it in direction of mid-wicket, however missed it utterly within the course of.
It was at this second the New Zealanders had a short collapse, dropping Younger and Daryl Mitchell (1) by the twenty second over to Omarzai and spinner Rashid Khan, respectively, because the rating learn 110 for 4.
Whereas Younger had already scored his seventh ODI half-century, he was notably dropped within the second over by Rahmat Shah off Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Nonetheless, New Zealand managed to get well quickly as skipper Latham and Phillips put up one other fantastic stand that outlined the tone for the remainder of their innings.
The duo additionally introduced up their respective twenty third and third ODI half-centuries every, regardless of the Afghani bowlers retaining the Kiwi scoring charge in examine.
Because the pair started upping the ante and the scoring charge submit the forty fifth over, the partnership was damaged by pacer Naveen-ul-Haq within the forty eighth, with each the set batters departing in the identical over.
However, there was nonetheless some work to be finished, and it was Mark Chapman (25 not out) who got here up with some late blitz, together with two fours and a six, to make sure that the Black Caps went previous the 275-run mark on this monitor.
For Afghanistan, Omarzai and Naveen have been the celebrities with the ball, seizing a few wickets every, whereas Rashid was a no brainer together with his economical spell.
Nonetheless, a complete of 5 dropped catches did make issues a bit onerous for the Afghans, particularly Rashid, who noticed a few his probabilities go begging.
