Chennai (Tamil Nadu): New Zealand sprung to the top of the points table with four wins in a row defeating Bangladesh without breaking a sweat on Wednesday. The batting unit dished out a solid performance despite Kane Williamson's injury and the bowlers turned out to be too hot to handle for the Afghanistan batters wrapping their innings only on 139.
Rahmat Shah and Azmatullah Omarzai were the only batters to score more than 20 runs individually in the drubbing handed by New Zealand. Lockie Ferguson's fiery pace was too difficult to tackle for the Afghanistan batters and he scalped three wickets while Mitchell Santner capitalised on the turn he was getting from the surface and dismissed three batters as well. The Blackcaps registered a 149-run win as a result of a clinical bowling display and leaped at the top of the points table.
Earlier in the day, a fairly good batting show on a wicket that doesn't hold much for the batters took New Zealand to a competitive 288-6 in the allotted 50 overs against Afghanistan in an ICC World Cup league match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, popularly known as Chepauk on Wednesday.
New Zealand must have done their homework well before taking on Afghanistan at the Chennai pitch. This is the 22-yard that played spoilsport to them who came to the ground to see a flurry of sixes in limited-overs cricket. Put into bat, New Zealand openers Devon Conway and Will Young made a cautious start with Devon Conway returning to the hut in the seventh over after having settled in the middle and scoring 20.
At 30 for one, Rachin Ravindra joined Will Young to stitch a 79-run stand for the second wicket. But the Kiwis lost three wickets in a space of four deliveries when Rachin Ravindra was sent home at his individual score of 32 and on the very next delivery when Will Young was on 54. Both wickets went to Azmatullah, who was on a hat-trick.
Daryl Mitchell (1) went cheaply to spinner Rashid Khan and then came the highest partnership of 144 runs shared by skipper Tom Latham and Glenn Phillips. Both scored at a brisk pace till Phillips was sent back home after a well-made 71 off 80 deliveries with the help of four boundaries and an equal number of sixes.
After adding nine runs, Tom Latham also departed scoring 68 off 74 balls peppered with three fours and two sixes. The score was however taken beyond an average one by Mark Chapman who hit an unbeaten 12-ball 25 with two fours and six. Among the Afghan bowlers, Naveen-ul Haq and Azmatullah snared two wickets apiece while Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan claimed one wicket each.
Brief scores: New Zealand 288/6 in 50 overs (Glenn Phillips 71, Tom Latham 68, Will Young 54; Naveen-ul Haq 2-48, Azmatullah 2-56) versus Afghanistan 139/10 in 34.4 overs (Rahmat Shah 36, Azmatullah Omarzai 27; Lockie Ferguson 3-19, Mitchell Santner 3-39)
Also read: World Cup: Rohit Sharma surpasses Virat Kohli in ICC ODI batter rankings for first time
