Published: Mar 08, 2015, 03:39 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 08, 2015, 03:39 PM (IST)
New Zealand defeated Afghanistan by six wickets in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Pool A match, with six wickets to spare. In doing so New Zealand have made it five wins out of five games in the quadrennial event. Rishad D’Souza looks at some of the key moments in the match. FULL SCORECARD: New Zealand vs Afghanistan
New Zealand pick up early wickets: Even though conditions at Napier weren’t very favourable, New Zealand picked two early wickets and had Afghanistan on the back foot within the first three overs with Trent Boult and Daniel Vettori picking a wicket each. The openers, Javed Ahmadi and Usman Ghani were both taken out cheaply. Ahmadi scored one run, while Ghani managed to perform one run worse, getting a duck. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: POINTS TABLE
Vettori demolishes and dominates middle order: Under conditions that were not very helpful for the seamers and bowlers in general, Vettori brought his experience and guile to play. After that early wicket of Usman Ghani, he came back to destroy the middle order taking the wickets of Nawroz Mangal, Mohammad Nabi and Afsar Zazai in quick succession reducing Afghanistan to 59 for six. Vettori finished with figures 10-4-18-4. Top 10 batsmen in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
Samiullah Shenwari – Najibullah Zadran fightback: Shenwari stood tall despite the carnage wrecked by Vettori and was soon accompanied by Najibullah at the crease. At no point was Najibullah keen on simply ticking along and took the attack to the bowlers right from the onset. He finally got out for a run-a-ball 56, losing his wicket to Milne. He stitched a 86-run partnership with Shenwari. Shenwari scored 54 off 110 balls before he got out. Top 10 bowlers in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
Brendon McCullum blitz: McCullum has been in destructive mood right since match one of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and he took no different approach today. He smashed 42 off 19 balls and was looking set for a speedy hundred but lost his wicket with an inside edge that went onto hit his stumps. Nabi, the Afghan skipper, took the wicket. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: SCHEDULE & MATCH DETAILS
New Zealand crawl to victory: At no time were New Zealand in any sort of pressure in their chase of 187, but the batsman decided to take a very measured and slightly over-cautious approach. McCullum’s fellow opener, Martin Guptill scored 57 at a decent Strike Rate (SR) of 75. Kane Williamson played an average knock of 33 from 45 balls before getting out. But Ross Taylor 24 (41) and Grant Elliott 19 (28) played extremely slow given the comfortable position NZ were in but they eventually got home easily with six wickets to spare. Top 10 fielders in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
(Rishad D’Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RishadDsouza on Twitter)
