New Delhi. Afghanistan has confirmed its place in the Super-8 by performing brilliantly in the T20 World Cup. It defeated Papua New Guinea on Friday. This is its third consecutive victory. While this victory of Afghanistan gave it a chance to celebrate, it shattered the dreams of New Zealand. The Kiwi team is now all set. New Zealand’s remaining matches are now just formalities because their results will not make any difference in the race for the Super-8.
Afghanistan won the toss against Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Friday and elected to field first. Captain Rashid Khan’s decision proved to be absolutely correct and the Afghan bowlers bowled out PNG for 95 runs. The target was not difficult and the Afghanistan batsmen achieved it easily.
Afghanistan’s heroes were once again its bowlers. Fazalhaq Farooqi once again led the bowling attack and spoiled Papua New Guinea’s start by taking two wickets in the powerplay. He also took a wicket in his second spell. In this way, Fazalhaq Farooqi took three wickets for 16 runs in a spell of 4 overs. He has now taken 9 wickets in 3 matches in the tournament.
Apart from Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen Ul Haq and Noor Ahmed also took wickets for Afghanistan. Naveen got two wickets and Noor got one. 4 batsmen of Papua New Guinea were run out. From Papua New Guinea, only Kiplin Doriga (27) could score more than 15 runs. The second top scorer of the team was ‘Mr. Extra’. Afghanistan gave 25 runs to PNG as extras.
Afghanistan’s team is in Group C in the T20 World Cup. The teams of West Indies, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Uganda are also in this group. West Indies and Afghanistan have confirmed their place in the Super-8 by winning three matches each in the tournament. Uganda has 2 points from 3 matches. Papua New Guinea has lost all its three matches. New Zealand still has 2 matches left, but this will not affect the group ranking. Even if New Zealand wins both its matches, it will not be able to go beyond 4 points. This means that it has to return home after playing both its matches.
Tags: Afghanistan Cricket, ICC T20 world cup, new zealand, T20 World Cup
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 14, 2024, 09:00 IST