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Here New Zealand was cruising comfortably at 109/1, and now they are at 113/4. Both the set batsmen are now back in pavilion (Will Young and Rachin Ravindra). And ironically it is the seamer Azmatullah Omarzai who did the maximum damage (at this point 1-0-1-2). Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman have also played their part well, by taking one wicket each.
Looks like another unpredictable match, Afghanistan has one of the best spinners in the world and if New Zealand were chasing then the pressure would have gotten the better, they lost quick wickets but they can recover and set a total around 260 which can be a competitive total considering chasing is difficult in these pitches from the highlights i have seen so far in this tournament.
New Zealand faced a tough stage at one point, being 110/4, but they managed to bounce back with an excellent effort from Tom Latham and Philips, also scoring 103 runs from their last 10 overs. Chapman's strong finish helped them reach a total of 288/6 after 50 overs. However, Afghanistan was not so sharp in the field today, dropping 5 catches. Their fielding errors were frustrating and costly. If not for these mistakes, New Zealand's target could have been even lower.
People who watch cricket normally say that "if you miss a catch, you miss the match" then I mean if Afghanistan missed five catches then what should they miss? Teams that play good cricket give more importance to fielding. You have good bowlers in your team, you have good batsmen in your team, but if you don't have good fielders in your team, then good bowlers or good batsmen will not work. In a match if you take one catch after another and don't stop the fielding runs then no matter how well the bowler bowls he will not get frustrated and he will not be able to bowl well even if he wants to and also because of extra catches and extra runs. Due to giving away the total collection will be very big as a result of which the batsmen will have nothing to do in that match.
Afghanistan returned to their true form in the second innings, scoring just 39 runs after 12 overs with the loss of two wickets.
A partnership that New Zealand has been able to build under pressure would have you believe that Afghanistan will never be able to build a partnership as they will continue to lose wickets at regular intervals.