The fans have witnessed a great match in the T20 World Cup. Afghanistan defeated the New Zealand team in the group-stage match. Afghans set a record by beating New Zealand by a huge margin of 84 runs in this match held in Guyana, West Indies. Afghanistan's players have performed exceptionally well in all three departments, batting, bowling, and fielding. As a result, after collecting 159 runs by batting at the beginning, the team made New Zealand all-out for only 75 runs!
Afghanistan has formed a strong team in this year's T20 World Cup. Afghanistan cricket has improved a lot over the years. Now they are not a small group; Afghanistan has proved it. The team has several world-class stars. Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Faizul Haque Farooqi, Mohammad Gurbaz are all performing continuously for the team. There is a lot of demand for Afghanistan players around the world in the T20 format!
Afghanistan had made it to the main stage of the 2024 T20 World Cup long ago. In the group stage of the World Cup, the team was placed in Group C. West Indies, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Uganda are there along with Afghanistan. Two teams from this group will advance to the top eight. In that regard, the most worthy claimant after New Zealand is the Afghanistan team. Afghanistan has already proved it. The team defeated Papua New Guinea by a huge margin in the first match of the group stage.
Afghanistan faced the most important match of their group stage yesterday against New Zealand. In this match of New Zealand and Afghanistan, everyone kept New Zealand team ahead. But the Afghans have surprisingly defeated New Zealand. At the start of this match, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to bowl. Basically, New Zealand's plan was to restrict Afghanistan to low runs with good bowling. But the Kiwis could not fulfill the plan due to fielding and bowling failures.
Batting first, two openers, Rahmanullah Gurbaz Ibrahim Jadran, started the opening for Afghanistan brilliantly. The two shared a match-winning 103-run partnership. It was mainly because of the catch misses by the New Zealand players that helped Afghanistan get off to a good start. Rahmanullah Gurbaz's 56-ball 80 and Azmatullah Omarajai's 13-ball 22 scored a good target of 159. That is undoubtedly a good score on a West Indies bowling pitch.
It was not easy for the New Zealand team to chase down 160 runs given by Afghanistan and win. Because Afghanistan has a world-class bowling line-up. New Zealand batsmen completely failed to bat well against Afghanistan on this day. From the beginning of the innings, the Black Caps were under pressure while batting. Finn Allen was out on the first delivery and back to the pavilion. Next, Rashid Khan and Farooqui's excellent bowling saw New Zealand all out for 75 runs. As a result, the Afghans set a record of winning by 84 runs in the first appearance against New Zealand!
