Match Details:
Match No. 40: New Zealand vs Afghanistan
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Date & Time: 7 November 2021 @3:30pm IST
Live Streaming: Star Sports Network and Hotstar
Overview:
When the T20 World Cup began almost everyone was looking forward to India v Pakistan or England v Australia game as the biggest clash in the Super-12 stage but such have the tides turned in this edition of the tournament that the above stated clashes turned out to be monotonous one sided games while a game of New Zealand v Afghanistan that was initially viewed as a not so interesting affair is now the most exciting game of Super-12 stage due to it virtually being a 3 team affair, with the 3rd one being India.
After losing to Pakistan in their opening game, New Zealand has done well by winning all their next 3 games including the one against India. Guptill has done well at the top while Boult and Sodhi have provided required breakthroughs with the ball but against Afghanistan’s spin prowess, their skipper Kane Williamson will be the one holding the key.
Afghanistan, on the contrary, had an excellent start to the tournament with a massive 130 run win over Scotland but they seem to have lost their way after that. They took the game against Pakistan really close but were completely outplayed by India in their last match where they not only ruined their own net run rate but also providing the required boost to the Indian net run rate. Against genuine pace of Boult and co., Afghanistan will have to show a great display of batting to ensure another big win like the way they did against Scotland.
Qualification Scenario:
New Zealand: A win will directly take them to the semi-final.
Afghanistan: Their chances are relatively low. With just 2 wins and a NRR lower than India, it make things difficult for them. A win in the vicinity of 50 runs would just land their NRR slightly above India, who will face Namibia in the final match and can up their NRR by yet another huge win. So Afghanistan will have to win this by an enormous margin or hope Namibia play a really tight game with India.
The losing side of this match will be eliminated.
Team News:
New Zealand: Unless any fitness concern arises, New Zealand have no reason to meddle with their playing XI from their last match.
Expected XI: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson (C), Devon Conway (WK), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult
Afghanistan: If Mujeeb Ur Rahman is deemed fit, he would replace Sharafuddin Ashraf else they will be fielding the same XI as well.
Expected XI: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (WK), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (C), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat, Naveen-ul-Haq, Hamid Hassan.
Pitch Report:
This could be a high scoring match with the side batting second getting an advantage over the defending side.
Fun Facts:
This is the first time both these sides are facing each other in T20Is.
Both these sides have had exactly same pattern throughout the tournament by batting first thrice and chasing just once, with both of them coming against India. All their results were same except the fact that New Zealand won against India, which Afghanistan couldn’t.
If New Zealand win this game, India would fail to reach the semi-final of an ICC Trophy for the first time since 2012. They have made it to the top 4 in last 7 ICC Trophies on the trot (2 World Cups, 2 T20 World Cups, 2 Champions Trophies and a WTC Final). Nevertheless, this is still a record ahead of Australia’s streak of 6 on 6 (2 World Cups, 3 Champions Trophies and a World T20) during the period of 2002-2009.
Rashid Khan is just 1 wicket shy of completing 400 T20 wickets. Currently just 3 bowlers have reached this mark – Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Imran Tahir.
Martin Guptill needs just 26 runs to complete 8000 T20 runs and thereby become just the 2nd New Zealander (15th overall) after Brendon McCullum to reach the milestone.
If Martin Guptill gets a half-century, it would be his half-century of his half-centuries in T20s.
Tim Southee (1878) and Mohammed Nabi (1666) have bowled the 3rd and 5th highest number of deliveries in T20Is respectively.
Dream XI Fantasy Team:
