Afghanistan vs New Zealand highlights

New Zealand folded for 75 in a chase of 160 as Afghanistan made it two wins in two

Fazalhaq Farooqi ended with 4 for 17, New Zealand vs Afghanistan, T20 World Cup 2024, Guyana, June 7, 2024
Fazalhaq Farooqi ended with 4 for 17 • ICC/Getty Images

Afghanistan 159 for 6 (Gurbaz 80, Ibrahim 44, Boult 2-22, Henry 2-37) beat New Zealand 75 (Phillips 18, Rashid 4 for 17, Farooqi 4 for 17) by 84 runs

Afghanistan boosted their Super Eight chances with yet another dominating win, this time thumping New Zealand by 84 runs in Providence. Having beaten Uganda by 125 runs in their opening match, they are now at the top of Group C with a net run rate of 5.225.

After being sent in, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave Afghanistan a start of 103 in 14.3 overs. It came off the back of the 154 the pair added against Uganda, thus making them the first opening pair to register two successive century stands in the history of the T20 World Cup.

Afghanistan’s was an innings of two halves. They scored 55 for no loss in the first ten overs and 104 for 6 in the last ten, with Gurbaz contributing 80 off 56 balls. New Zealand, who had decided not to play any warm-up games, looked every bit rusty as their fielders dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.

With the pitch assisting both seamers and spinners, chasing 160 was not going to be easy. But few would have expected New Zealand to collapse in the manner they did.

Fazalhaq Farooqi picked up three wickets in the powerplay and Rashid Khan three just after it. Eventually, both ended with identical figures of 4 for 17 as New Zealand were bowled out for 75 in the 15.2 overs. Glenn Phillips and Matt Henry we