Afghanistan batters had no reply to a disciplined New Zealand bowling assault on Wednesday as they received bowled out for 139 in Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. The Afghans have been in pursuit of New Zealand’s 288/6 earlier than they crumbled.
Rahmat Shah, who made 36 from 62 balls, top-scored for Afghanistan whereas Azmatullah Omarzai made 27 from 32. Ikram Alikhil remained unbeaten on 19 from 21 balls. Lockie Ferguson and Mitchell Santner picked three wickets every for New Zealand whereas Trent Boult received two.
The Black Caps stay unbeaten within the occasion up to now, taking the highest spot once more with its fourth straight victory.
Chasing a tricky goal of 289 on a spinner-friendly wicket at Chepauk, Afghanistan might handle solely 139 in 34.4 overs. The Afghans discovered Lockie Ferguson’s (3/19 in 7 overs) tempo too sizzling to deal with and had no solutions for Mitchell Santner’s (3/39 in 7.4 overs) deliveries, which at occasions, turned a mile.
This was after triple half-centuries from Will Younger (54), Tom Latham (68) and Glenn Phillips (71) ensured that New Zealand put up a profitable whole of 288/6 in 50 overs.
Whereas chasing, Afghanistan have been all the way down to 43 for 3 by the 14th over, with skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (8) being the third man to be dismissed, with Ferguson having his quantity.
Then, the pair of Rahmat Shah (36) and Azmatullah Omarzai (27) took transient management of the chase, placing on a 54-run stand for the fourth wicket.
Nonetheless, the New Zealanders already had the higher hand, and with the ball turning, they hardly allowed them to attain freely.
Within the twenty sixth over, pacer Trent Boult received the partnership damaged, eliminating Omarzai.
Thereon, the Afghans barely had any solutions as they misplaced wickets at common intervals.
Earlier, New Zealand recovered properly from a mini mid-innings stoop to submit a commendable whole. Nonetheless, a complete of 5 dropped catches did make issues a bit laborious for the Afghans, particularly Rashid, who noticed a few his probabilities go begging.
Younger , Latham and Phillips’ half-centuries ensured that the Black Caps posted an above-par whole on a monitor the place stroke-making wasn’t a straightforward proposition.
Phillips and Latham placed on 144 invaluable runs for the fifth wicket and it might properly 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.
An opportunity to stump Ravindra was missed, whereas spinner Mohammad Nabi was put below strain by the Black Caps batters, as he was attacked fairly repeatedly.
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 fully within the course of.
It was at this second the New Zealanders had a short collapse, shedding 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.
However, New Zealand managed to get better quickly as skipper Latham and Phillips put up one other high quality 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 maintaining the Kiwi scoring fee in verify.
Because the pair started upping the ante and the scoring fee 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 accomplished, 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.
Temporary rating: New Zealand: 288 for six in 50 overs (Will Younger 54, Tom Latham 68, Glenn Phillips 71; Naveen-ul-Haq 2/48) beat Afghanistan: 139 all out in 34.4 overs (Rahmat Shah 36; Lockie Ferguson 3/19, Mitchell Santner 3/39) by 149 runs.
– With PTI inputs
