Glenn Phillips (71), who was out of the bag, and Tom Latham (68) put on a solid 144-run partnership for the fifth wicket as New Zealand overcame Afghanistan with a challenging total of 288 on Wednesday, October 18, in Chennai. Afghanistan lost the plot in the slog overs, with the last ten overs producing a whopping 103 runs. They also generally had bad catching, which allowed New Zealand to score about 30 to 40 runs more than they should have.
Despite losing their first-ball batsman, Devon Conway, to Mujeeb-ur-Rahman in the opening Powerplay, Will Young produced a magnificent fifty with the exceptional Rachin Ravindra providing superb support. The surface utilised in the Bangladesh vs. The New Zealand match provided plenty of opportunities for stroke play because of its shorter boundary at one end. It was also challenging because it was the second game in the series. Up until Azmatullah Omarzai stepped in, it seemed as though Young and Ravindra had everything under control.
By dismissing both batsmen in the same over, the all-rounder shocked New Zealand by obliterating any potential combination in two deliveries. Daryl Mitchell fell in Rashid Khan’s following over, suggesting that the batsmen would face more challenges. After being at 109/1 for more than half the overs, New Zealand found themselves at 110/4 in an instant. That’s when Phillips worked with acting captain Latham to finish the repair. It wasn’t always easy, especially when slower bowlers caught them off guard and put them up against them, but they persisted. Like in the previous ones, these hitters were helped by a couple of foolish fielder catches.
Despite the fact that both batters hit a perfect final blow, Afghanistan suffered greatly as a result of their mistakes. Despite having to stay in charge for most of the inning, Phillips was the team’s most flexible player. Latham had trouble finding his range towards the end, but by then, he was also in the zone, using his signature ramps and lofted strokes. Afghanistan dropped catches and bowled horribly in the final overs, which prevented them from chasing roughly 260 runs. With Dew likely to arrive later, they may still strive towards this goal even if it will require more effort to stave off the cunning New Zealand assault.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 288/6 in 50 overs (Glenn Phillips 71, Tom Latham 68; Naveen-ul-Haq 2-48) vs Afghanistan