New Zealand end Afghanistan campaign, India’s hopes in World Cup
- 07 Nov 2021
Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter
‘Men at times are the master of their fates,’ written by William Shakespeare 400 years ago in the opening scene of Julius Caesar, was proven right by a confident New Zealand in their World Cup match against Afghanistan on Sunday.
A ruthless New Zealand produced a scintillating performance to trample over the ambitions of India and Afghanistan both with a convincing victory to seal their fate in the World Cup.
New Zealand killed two birds with the same stone as they marched relentlessly over India and Afghanistan’s ambitions of advancing to the semi-final of the World Cup with an eight-wicket victory.
Had New Zealand lost the match, their fate would have gone into India’s hands who are playing Namibia in their last match on Monday. India would have got a certain target and assigned a minimum-victory margin and the Kiwis would have been left with their fingers crossed.
Indian supporters were rooting for Afghanistan and pinned their hopes on the minnows to become the gateway of their teams to the last four of the cricket razzmatazz.
But a billion prayers went unanswered and a billion hearts were broken by a rampaging New Zealand, who showed no mercy against the underdogs.
A Trent Boult-led New Zealand restricted Afghanistan, who were fancying their chances of a maiden semi-final appearance in the World Cup, to 124 and chased down the target for the loss of just two wickets.
Defending, Afghanistan did try to make some in-roads through their bowlers but captain Kane Williamson and Devon Conway shared an unbeaten 68-run partnership to all but end Afghanistan’s campaign and India’s hopes. Williamson remained unbeaten on 40 while Conway went longest this time around for an unbeaten 32-ball 36.
Earlier, Boult, who had broken the backbone of India’s batting line-up with three wickets, became the torch bearer against Afghanistan once again.
After Adam Milne triggered the collapse with the dismissal of dangerman Hazratullah Zazai with just eight runs on the board Boult ripped through the fragile middle-order.
Afghanistan could never recover from there on and kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals. Boult had Hazratullah Zazai caught by Santner before Tim Southee, who picked up two wickets for 24, got rid of Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
Afghanistan were subjected to another infamous collapse with only Najibullah Zardan showing some courage against a clinical bowling of New Zealand.
He waged the war single-handedly and smacked a fighting 48-ball 73 with the help of six boundaries and three sixes to propel the score past 100.
Gulabdin Naib and Mohammad Nabi also chipped in with useful contributions as Afghanistan posted a modest total of 124/8. All the other batsmen failed to weather the disciplined bowling of New Zealand as they could not reach even a double-figure mark.
Ish Sodhi rattled the stumps of Naib as Southee caught Nabi off his bowling to make it 115/5. Boult sent back Zardan and Karim Janat in quick succession to complete his three-wicket haul while Rashid Khan fell prey to James Neesham.
