Abu Dhabi: New Zealand defeated Afghanistan in the ICC T20 World Cup and knocked India out of the semi-finals.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first against New Zealand in a crucial T20 World Cup match in the United Arab Emirates. They scored 125 runs in reply to which the Kiwis achieved the target in 18.1 overs.
With the victory of New Zealand, the situation of the teams that reached the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup also became clear and after the arrival of New Zealand, all hopes of India to reach the semi-finals were dashed and they are out of the event.
On the other hand, Pakistan will face Australia in the semi-finals of the mega event while New Zealand will face England.
New Zealand are into the semis 👏#T20WorldCup | #NZvAFG | https://t.co/paShoZpj88 pic.twitter.com/PRo6Ulw4Dk
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) November 7, 2021
The New Zealand openers batted confidently in pursuit of the target, with Martin Guptill (28) and Daryl Mitchell (17) scoring while skipper Kane Williamson (40) and David Conway (36) remained unbeaten.
Earlier, Afghanistan’s early batsmen did not show any significant performance and one wicket after another kept falling. However, Najibullah took over the falling batting line and played a key role in bringing the team’s total score to 124 runs by playing a valuable 73-run inning. Paid
Apart from Najibullah, no batsman could score big. Only Gulbuddin Naib and Mohammad Nabi could cross the double-figure so that Afghanistan could score only 124 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs.
For New Zealand, Trent Bolt took 3 wickets, Tim Southee took 2 wickets and Adam Milne, Ash Sodhi and James Nisham took one wicket each.