World Cup 2015 Match 31 New Zealand vs Afghanistan Review; Comfortable win for Kiwis

World Cup 2015 Match 31 New Zealand vs Afghanistan Review; Comfortable win for Kiwis: Afghanistan faced a juggernaut at its highest speed in New Zealand, who has won each and every game in this World Cup so far. Read further to know more about the match.

Afghanistan captain Mohd. Nabi won the toss and elected to bat first on account of a slow pitch. They started by losing Javed Ahmadi to Boult early. Then in a stroke of genius, McCullum brought in Daniel Vettori into bowl in the 3rd overs and he went on to demolish the Afghan batting, picking up a wicket with his first ball. He continued his work picking up 4/18 in his 10 overs. Afghanistan were 59/6 in 20 overs and looking down at the barrel. But Samiullah Shenwari (54) and Najibullah Zadran (56) came together to stitch a partnership of 86 runs for the 7th wicket. Their partnership brought some respect to the Afghan innings which ended on 186 in the 48th over. Trent Boult continued his terrific form taking 3/34 to help Vettori to dismantle the Afghan batting line-up.

New Zealand just had to chase 187 runs and Martin Guptill (57) and Brendon McCullum (42) started the job in their usual devastating fashion. New Zealand lost McCullum in the 5th over with score reading 53. He had scored 42 off just 19 balls. Kane Williamson (33) and Ross Taylor (24) took New Zealand to win in 37th over. Both of them got some much-needed batting practice in the middle and took their time in making the winning score. Mohd. Nabi and Shapoor Zadran took 1 wicket each and the rest 2 wickets fell to run outs.

New Zealand won the match by 6 wickets and 83 balls remaining. Afghanistan can take heart from the fact that they could make 186 from 59/6 which is a big achievement for them against the Kiwi bowling attack. New Zealand are now sure of a quarterfinal berth and topping the Group A.

Daniel Vettori who picked up his 300th ODI wicket was named the Man of the match for his 4/18.

Brief Scores:
Afghanistan 186 (N Zadran 56, S Shenwari 54; D Vettori 4/18) lost to New Zealand 188/4 (M Guptill 57, B McCullum 42; M Nabi 1/39) by 6 wickets.

Records and Trivia:

# Najibullah Zadran’s 56 is the highest for a No. 8 batsman from a current non-Test playing nation in World Cups. Thomas Odoyo’s 51 against Canada in 2011 was the previous best.

# Daniel Vettori returned figures of 4 for 18 from ten overs – the best by a New Zealand spinner in World Cups, breaking the record Vettori had created when he took 4 for 23 against Ireland in 2007.

# Vettori became the first bowler from New Zealand to join the 300-wicket club in ODIs. He now has 302 wickets from 291 matches. Kyle Mills is a distant second, with 240 wickets from 170 matches.

# Mohammad Nabi became the first Afghanistan player to represent his country in 50 ODIs. He is followed by Samiullah Shenwari, who is one game away from reaching the landmark.