Afghanistan will face New Zealand in a crucial Group 2 Super-12 contest at the ICC T20 World Cup Afghanistan will face New Zealand in a crucial Group 2 Super 12 contest at the ICC T20 World Cup on Sunday. Both these teams, and India, are still in contention for the second semifinal spot. The whole of India will be closely watching this contest.
If Kane Williamson’s men win, they will reach eight points and qualify. For Afghanistan to advance, it needs to beat New Zealand and hope for Namibia to shock India.
Afghanistan can also progress even if India beats Namibia, but it has to win big against the Kiwis to dramatically improve its Net Run Rate (NRR). However, India, playing last, has the edge.
India’s thrashing of Scotland means its NRR has jumped to 1.619.
New Zealand’s batting has looked in good shape and its bowling, especially the eight overs of quality spin from Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, will be crucial here, where the longer boundaries are a bigger challenge for batters looking to go big.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, will be sweating over the fitness of Mujeeb Ur Rahman. In batting, openers Hazratullah Zazai and Mohammad Shahzad set the tone with their aggressive approach in PowerPlay. Whether they can do the same against the pace duo of Trent Boult and Tim Southee remains to be seen.
Teams:
Afghanistan: Mohammed Nabi (captain), Hazratullah Zazai, Ahmed Shahzad, Gulbadin Naib, Naveen ul Haq, Rashid Khan, Hamid Hasan, Rahamnaullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Fareed Ahmed, Usman Ghani.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Devon Conway, Tim Seifert (wk), James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Mark Chapman, Adam Milne, Kyle Jamieson, Todd Astle.
Match starts at 3.30 PM IST.
