Kane Williamson's New Zealand suffered an embarrassing 84-run loss against Rashid Khan-led Afghanistan in match 14 of the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup 2024 which was being played at the Providence Stadium in Guyana, on June 8 (Saturday). After the match, the NZ captain blamed their bad fielding as one big reason for this loss. The Afghan side posted 159/6 in 20 overs and a lot of credit for that goes to the dropped catches and missed opportunities.
Williamson calls out NZ's and fielding
After the match, NZ captain Kane Williamson did not miss to praise the Afghanistan team and their bowling skills for their 75-run all out. However, he also called out their fielding which was a complete down. They had the opportunity to dismiss Gurbaz inside the first four over but it was missed and he later went on to hit match-winning 80 runs. Even Ibrahim Zadran who scored 44 runs off 41 was dropped on two occasions in the first 10 overs itself.
“Yeah, first congrats to AFG, they simply outplayed us in all facets. To get to that total on that surface, they kept their wickets and made a good score. We'll have to put this behind quickly and get back to our next challenge. The boys did work hard in preparations for this match (on the lack of match practice), but it was hard and we need to move on quickly. Games come thick and fast in this tournament. 160 was a tough chase, but we needed partnerships, the skills they had made it difficult for us (on AFG's spinners),” said Kane Williamson in the post-match presentation.
“Our fielding was a let down, particularly in the first 10 overs, we had our chances and we didn't use them. We need to take a step in the right direction, we know we are better than this, we'll have to go away and give ourselves the best chance going into the next match. We didn't take our opportunities and it goes a long way in changing the outcome of the match. Once they had a score, their bowlers executed their skills well. We'll have a talk about this and then look to come back well in the next match,” he added.
Afghanistan crush New Zealand to get on top of Group C
Afghanistan batting first scored 159/6 and later bowled out the Black Caps on the mere score of 75 runs in the second innings and scripted a famous win for their team's legacy. Gurbaz won the Player of the Match for his match-winning 80-run knock. Then four-fers from Rashid Khan and Fazalhaq Farooqi ensured the team's win. Now the Afghan side are on top of the Group C points table with four points and net run rate of +5.225
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