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With solid display, New Zealand keep their perfect run going in World Cup
Afghanistan had the Kiwis in trouble early on and but they let them off the hook with some poor fielding.
New Zealand are known as cricket’s nice guys. They don’t, barring the odd wry Jimmy Neesham tweet, crib if they lose a World Cup on boundary countback. Australia’s reputation for growling would need sandpapering but since the 2015 ODI World Cup, friction and the Black Caps have been mutually exclusive. Nothing’s happened so far to suggest that will change in India where after Wednesday’s 149-run run win against Afghanistan, New Zealand have now won four in four to top the standings.
Of course, such temperament is helped by opponents when they drop four easy catches. It started in the second over and continued through the time Afghanistan fielded on a humid afternoon in Chennai after winning the toss. Forget Mitchell Santner’s effort, running back, leaping and sticking out one hand to dismiss skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi, the kind Afghanistan missed to let New Zealand make 288/6, it seemed like they had trampolines fitted on palms.
Opener Will Young, in because Kane Williamson’s freak fracture, was dropped on one in Fazalhaq Farooqi’s first over by lone slip Rahmat Shah which meant New Zealand would not be 2/1. Farooqi had set up Young with three deliveries that came in before luring him with one going away. Rachin Ravindra was on zero when he could not keep a drive down, off Mujeeb Ur Rahman, but Shahidi at midwicket spilled the chance.
From 30/1, after Devon Conway had been trapped leg-before by Mujeeb, that would have been 42/2. Instead, it wasn’t till New Zealand reached 109 that Ravindra, who had taken 13 balls to get off the mark, swung and missed one from Azmatullah Omarzai to be dismissed on 32. Four deliveries later, Omarzai dismissed Young, wicket-keeper Ikram Alikhil’s one-handed diving effort throwing into sharp contrast Afghanistan’s butter-fingers.
Next over, the innings’ 22nd, Rashid Khan surprised Daryl Mitchell. From 109/1, New Zealand were 110/4. But New Zealand wouldn’t have played World Cup finals and won the Test championship mace if they couldn’t deal with the situation of the top three batters, who get 72% of their runs, gone by the 22nd over.
Stand-in skipper Tom Latham and player-of-the-match Glenn Philipps (71; 4x4, 4x6) absorbed the pressure of quality spin bowling, ran superbly between wickets to compensate for no boundaries between the 19th and the 29th overs and changed gears at the end for a partnership worth 144 runs.
One that needed help from Mujeeb and Shahidi. Latham, who made 68, was on 35 when he edged a sweep and Mujeeb dropped a dolly, off Rashid Khan. Latham got another reprieve, again off Khan, when he was on 38 and Shahidi spilled an easy chance at cover. They fell within one run and two balls of each other in the 48th over but had put New Zealand on course to a total that at 185/4 after 40 didn’t look possible.
Batting second, especially after how they beat world champions England, may have looked questionable had Afghanistan managed more than being all out for 139 after being 134/6 in the 34th over. Santner’s delivery that got Mohammad Nabi was the best of the innings, the ball coming in, bouncing and deviating just enough to clip off-stump but New Zealand never let up the pressure. And they held their catches.
