Who: New Zealand vs Afghanistan
What: ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2024 Group C match
When: Friday, June 7, 7:30pm native (23:30 GMT)
The place: Windfall Stadium, Georgetown, Guyana
How one can comply with: Al Jazeera may have reside textual content protection of the match from 4:30pm (20:30 GMT).
New Zealand lastly kickstart their T20 World Cup marketing campaign in Friday’s late night conflict in Guyana, as they face a skilful Afghanistan facet in some of the difficult fixtures of Group C.
Afghanistan obtained their event beneath method with a resounding 125-run victory over Uganda on the similar venue on Tuesday.
A win in opposition to the Kiwis would put them in pole place for qualification for the Tremendous 8 stage from a gaggle, which additionally contains West Indies, who co-host this version with USA, and Papua New Guinea.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson is aware of the problem Afghanistan might throw at them, particularly their bowling unit, led by world famend leg spinner Rashid Khan.
“They’ve such a skilful group, one of many higher bowling assaults within the competitors,” Williamson instructed reporters. “And we’ve seen that in franchise competitions: the involvement, the variety of Afghani gamers. They’re getting higher and higher.”
Six months in the past, on the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India, Afghanistan completed sixth within the 10-team competitors, above defending champions England. Their fearless model of cricket makes Afghanistan one of many darkish horses on the T20 event.
“They’re getting increasingly top-level cricket. And we noticed on the final World Cup how sturdy they have been within the one-day worldwide format too. So, (they’ve) a extremely extremely expert group and quite a lot of threats,” Williamson added.
After their match in opposition to Afghanistan, the Kiwis face one of many favourites, West Indies. Masters of event craft, at the very least till the enterprise finish, the Black Caps have reached the semi-finals at 4 of the eight T20 World Cups and misplaced the 2021 ultimate to neighbours Australia.
Afghanistan in search of T20 revenge after ODI World Cup disappointment
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott believes his facet has a bonus in Friday’s match, having performed a match greater than the Kiwis, who’re among the many final groups to start their marketing campaign
“I believe we noticed within the 50-over World Cup that we’re in a position to compete with any facet on the earth. And that’s our philosophy right here,” Trott mentioned when requested if his facet has the firepower to beat New Zealand.
“So, each sport that we play, we anticipate to place ourselves in a profitable place. Or combat to win each single sport.
“New Zealand [are] an excellent facet, excellent facet in all codecs of the sport and [have] good match-winners at their disposal. Enjoying in opposition to New Zealand is all the time a troublesome match and I’m trying ahead to the competition – however we performed them within the 50-over World Cup the place they beat us. So hopefully we will get one again on them and stage it up,” he added.
Pitch and climate situations
The pitch on the Windfall Stadium in Guyana has thrown a spread of situations. The West Indies gained the primary match there by beating Papua New Guinea by 5 wickets, in a nervy chase of 137.
Nonetheless, the subsequent match noticed a greater batting efficiency as Afghanistan smashed 183, ultimately beating Uganda by 125 runs. The next contest was a low-scoring thriller, as Uganda chased a goal of a meagre 78 runs, sealing a three-wicket win over Papua New Guinea.
Trott mentioned it will be tough to foretell what could be an honest complete on the floor.
“Actually after [Papua New Guinea vs Uganda] you’re not fairly positive, so I wouldn’t need to sit right here and put a quantity on the market as a result of the pitch we would play is totally totally different,” Trott mentioned.
“I assumed what we did do is bowl rather well in our first sport and we’ll be trying to replicate that – as a result of I don’t suppose the pitch will probably be too dissimilar however, whether it is, we have to modify and our boys will probably be prepared for that.”
Forward of the match, a thunderstorm has been forecast to hit Georgetown on the morning of the fixture, however there’s solely a 30 % probability of rain throughout the hours of play within the night.
Head-to-head
New Zealand and Afghanistan have met solely as soon as in T20 internationals, with the Kiwis profitable by 8 wickets throughout their assembly in 2021.
Type
New Zealand tied their five-match T20 collection with Pakistan 2-2 in April after one of many video games was washed out. Earlier than that, they misplaced 3-0 of their residence collection in opposition to Australia.
Afghanistan defeated Uganda of their opening World Cup match whereas, earlier than the event, they gained 2-1 in a three-match collection in opposition to Eire in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Afghanistan: W W W L W
New Zealand: L W W L L
New Zealand group information
The Black Caps will probably be boosted by the return of their skipper Williamson and opener Devon Conway.
Squad: Kane Williamson (captain), Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.
Afghanistan group information
Afghanistan haven’t revealed any particulars concerning harm doubts forward of the sport.
Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Ishaq, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan (captain), Karim Janat, Nangyal Kharoti, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad Malik.
