Afghans take biscuit as NZ side crumble
New Zealand were yesterday knocked out of cricket’s Under-19 World Cup, comprehensively demolished by Afghanistan in their quarter-final in Christchurch.
Afghanistan reached 309-6 after winning the toss, and the New Zealanders never looked likely to reach the daunting tally, falling 202 runs short at Hagley Oval.
After losing their first four wickets inside seven overs, the young Kiwis battled to 107 all out, bowled out in 28.1 overs in a game dominated from start to finish by Afghanistan, who are coached by former New Zealand coach Andy Moles.
Unbeaten in pool play, the Kiwis had gone into the knockout phase of the tournament as favourites but struggled from the outset after Afghanistan won the toss.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (69) and Ibrahim Zadran (68) put on 117 for the first wicket, Bahir Shah’s unbeaten 67 provided crucial middle order substance, then Azmatullah Omarzai finished off in style with 66 off 23 balls.
Medium pacer Sandeep Patel topped the young Kiwi bowlers with 2-13 off three overs, removing both Rahmanullah and 16-year-old opener Ibrahim.
In reply, New Zealand were struggling at 20-4 after just seven overs, Rachin Ravindra run out without scoring before spinner Mujeeb Zadran removed Jakob Bhula and skipper Kaylum Boshier without scoring.
Finn Allen went for 13 late in the seventh over, edging a wideish ball from Naveen-ul-Haq to keeper Ikram Ali Khil, before Katene Clarke and Dale Phillips dug in for a face-saving 66-run fifth-wicket partnership.
But Phillips’ dismissal for 31 in the 20th over, trapped lbw by Qais Ahmad, triggered another collapse.
Two balls later, Patel was gone without scoring when he edged Qais to Ibrahim in the slips, the legspinner then going on to trap Clarke lbw for 38 and all but wrap up the Kiwi innings.
Qais’s figures of 4-33 were bettered only by Mujeeb’s 4-14, the New Zealanders finding no answer to the twin spin attack.
Afghanistan now meet Australia in the semifinals at Hagley Oval on Monday.