🏏 Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #16: New Zealand vs Afghanistan🏏- Page 58

Congratulations to all the match and leaderboard toppers 🎊🎊

And Prizi went top of table hehe congrats Pri ;)

Naya, Swetha and KJ still in overall top 10 :)

NZ win by 149 runs. That sums up the headlines. Do I need detail more of what happened today? NZ started steady. Lost Conway to an error of judgement. A double strike from Azmatullah. Afghanistan had a sniff. But that was it. Latham and Phillips rested back the momentum with valuable knocks. Chapman provided some late order runs. 289 seemed a little too much. Afghanistan top-order failed. The middle-order tried. The lower order was blown away. Boult, Henry, Ferguson provided the explosives. Santner and Ravindra burnt it on a slow flame. Afghanistan weren't roasted (refer Chennai heat and the too hot to handle bowling attack) today but certainly a huge dent to their confidence after their strong showing against England. It was meant to be a competition. But turned out that Afghanistan didn't put their best foot forward today. This WC hasn't seen a classic close game so far. Our wait continues. Your wait for the captain comments shouldn't take too long.

Glenn Phillips | Player of the Match: The Afghanistan spinners are incredibly talented and strong. Was really pleasing to see me and Tom go well in the middle after losing a few early. It was really good the way we batted here, especially on a dusty track here. Was great how we were able to take it down till the end and get the runs. We thought we’d be able to get 60 off the last 6 if we both were out there. The way Chapman and Santner finished it off was amazing. Thought that around 250 would’ve been par. We’re in an environment where we keep working for each other and play as a team. It’s about understanding what you can do for your mate and him understanding what he can do for you. We understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses really well.

Biggest wins for New Zealand in World Cups (by runs)
181 vs East Africa, Birmingham 1975
149 vs AFG, Chennai 2023*
148 vs KEN, Gros Islet 2007
143 vs WI, Wellington 2015

Lowest totals for Afghanistan in World Cups
125 vs SA, Cardiff, 2019
139 vs NZ, Chennai, 2023*
142 vs AUS, Perth, 2015
152 vs SL, Cardiff, 2019

Shahidi: At this level, you have to take those catches. The fielding was poor. We were a bit down because of that. Last six overs, a lot of runs scored by the NZ team. Before the 40th over, we dropped a couple of catches. We couldn't stop the set batters. We tried but failed. The toss I can say, you can't judge 100 percent when it comes to the pitch. The pitch was slow. We bowled well but the fielding was a concern for us. It will hurt us. We have more games to come. We will talk where we can improve and come back stronger in the next game.

Latham: A pleasing start. Another great performance. We were put under pressure some times. The bowlers managed to take wickets when it was needed. We had lost three wickets in a short span of time. We thought of regrouping. They bowled fantastically well. We managed to capitalize. Glenn played a fantastic knock. The first 10 overs were superb. Mitch Santner coming in and doing his job. Pleasing all-round performance. I guess on the back of some good performances, it is pleasing. We have India and then Australia. Hopefully, the momentum will continue.

Zain: "There can be a possibility that NZ can also not make to top 4, all coming matches are against big guys, India, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa and Srilanka."

Double post this please ignore.

Donald Alexande: "What an awful, dare I say irresponsible, capitulation. No thought of net run rate there"