Afghanistan shoot down Kiwis

Georgetown, June 8

A determined Afghanistan rode on splendid spells from their skipper Rashid Khan and left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi to stun New Zealand by 84 runs and make a strong case for a Super Eight berth in the T20 World Cup here.

Chasing a tricky 160 at the Providence Stadium here, New Zealand were shot out for a lowly 75 in an innings that lasted a mere 15.2 overs with only Glenn Phillips (18) and Matt Henry (12) managing double-digit scores.

The decision to bowl after winning the toss backfired on the Kiwis as the Afghans relied on openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 56-ball 84 and Ibrahim Zadran’s 44 off 41 to post of 159/6.

Farooqi, who snared five wickets against Uganda for nine runs, returned figures of 4/17 off his 3.2 overs. Rashid was also lethal as he collected the prized scalp of Kane Williamson (9 off 13) with his first ball.

Meanwhile, David Miller shone as South Africa survived some anxious moments to beat Netherlands by four wickets. — PTI

Brief scores: Afghanistan: 159/6 (Gurbaz 80, Zadran 44; Boult 2/22); NZ: 75 in 15.2 overs (Rashid 4/17, Farooqi 4/17); Netherlands: 103/9 (Engelbrecht 40; Baartman 4/11); SA: 106/6 in 18.5 overs (Miller 59*; Kingma 2/12).