Afghanistan vs. New Zealand Match Preview for the T20 World Cup 2024: A fierce rivalry for first place in Group C continues to rage.
Match facts
Huge picture: New face a difficult start
No team has reached the knock stages of a World Cup since 2015 than New Zealand. Since then, they have reached the semi-finals of each of their six white ball competitions, including three finals, but the trophy cabinet has n't been used. However, their current campaign could very well come to an end if they do n't immediately hit the ground running in a group that also includes co-hosts West Indies.
On Friday, they take the field for the first time, and immediately face a problem. Afghanistan are arguably the strongest spin-bowling team in the world, and Guyana has been the T20 World Cup 2024 location where the ball was most spinner-friendly. One beauties if they will turn out undercooked against a team that includes Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohammad Nabi, and possibly Noor Ahmad when you consider New Zealand's less-than-ideal training and the absence of official warm-up activities.
But, one of the reasons why New Zealand did n't practice during the IPL was that many of them were already there, and that's when company stars like Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, and Trent Boult could have had a major impact. Their numerous right-handed options give them a variety of batting strategies, and Finn Allen and Devon Conway's returning from injury also helps them.
New Zealand have a few roll weapons of their own also. The West Indies is Santner's favorite spot to bowl in, where he statistics 16.83 with an economy of 5.50 in T20s. Across the last two T20 World Cups, no bowler has had a higher average release point ( 2.27m ) than Santner. All teams will be on their feet this World Cup thanks to his uniqueness and ability to change his launch angle and speed.
They are flexible because Ravindra's left-arm rewrite and Phillips ' offspin give them room for maneuveration, making it possible for them to field a strong part in the absence of Ish Sodhi. Factor in the swing of Boult, the speed of Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson, and a series of other hole options, and New Zealand are still very much a risk. For Afghanistan's batting, that remains the biggest challenge on Friday. In order to secure a second win in two games, they'll look to the settled opening duo of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran for a strong start.
Form guide
New Zealand LWWLL ( last five completed T20Is, most recent first )
Afghanistan WWWLW
Afghanistan WWWLW
In the spotlight- Williamson, Conway and Farooqi
Kane Williamson and Devon Conway are two of New Zealand's top-three batters with next-to-zero game time recently. Conway missed the IPL with a finger injury that needed surgery while Williamson got only two games for Gujarat Titans. Neither have played a T20I game since January, but their experience is irreplaceable, especially if conditions are once again tricky for batting. Conway is proficient in scoring against all kinds of spin, however, Williamson could get bogged down by those who turn their stock ball away him, striking at only 106 since the T20 World Cup 2022.
Fazalhaq Farooqi showed against Uganda in Afghanistan's first game that it's not all about spinners in their team. In Providence, where this game will be played as well, he found significant deviation off the pitch and swung the ball nearly 2.5 degrees in the powerplay, more than twice that of the other bowlers. His 5 for 9 against Uganda was the fourth-best bowling figures in T20 World Cups, and Afghanistan will look for breakthroughs from him early so that the spinners could apply the squeeze sooner.
Team news: NZ assessing combinations
There are no injury concerns on either side. The same XI for Afghanistan and New Zealand will likely be weighed against spin and seam balance, respectively. Their resources are plenty: even if they keep out Mark Chapman, Michael Bracewell, Tim Southee and Sodhi, they still have eight bowling and eight batting options.
New Zealand ( probable ): 1 Devon Conway, 2 Finn Allen (wk ), 3 Kane Williamson ( capt ), 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Mark Chapman/Rachin Ravindra, 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 James Neesham, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Lockie Ferguson
Afghanistan ( probable ): 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk ), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Najibullah Zadran, 4 Mohammad Nabi, 5 Gulbadin Naib, 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Karim Janat, 9 Mujeeb- Ur- Rahman, 10 Naveen- ul- Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Pitch and conditions: Spin and rain on the radar
The pitch in Guyana has been sluggish, making chasing the preferred way to go. The chasing teams have won 19 of their 27 games and two of their three World Cup matches since 2022. Although the first-innings winning score is typically around 184, Providence's chances of a shortened game are high due to the amount of rain that is expected in the evening.
Stats that matter
Spinners have an economy of 5.28 in Guyana at this World Cup and have taken 17 wickets, averaging 17.82 apiece. There have n't been more than seven wickets for spinners in any other venue. Boult has only three T20I wickets in 13 innings across 26 powerplay overs since 2022, averaging a surprising 67.33 in the phase. In matches between Full Members since the last T20 World Cup, Afghanistan's spinners have the best average ( 19.45 ) and economy ( 6.72 ).
Quotes
" I believe we saw in the 50-over World Cup that we were able to compete against any team in the world. And that's our philosophy here. So, every game that we play, we expect to put ourselves in a winning position. or compete to win every game. So tomorrow that's no different".
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott
" We've been training most during the day, but the conditions have changed significantly between day and night." But from the couple of matches that have been played, it looks like a reasonable wicket, a good wicket, a fair wicket at the same time. Bit there for the bowlers but equally decent for the batters".New Zealand captain Kane Williamson
Copyright Notice:
Datavictory copyrights this specification. No part of this specification may be reproduced in any form or means, without the prior written consent of Datavictory.
Link:
Post navigation
Previous Post
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka meet with Super Eight relevance
