Afganistan vs New Zealand:Mohammad Nabi’s men didn’t enjoy a good start to their Super12 campaign as they lost their opening match to England by five wickets. The batting unit couldn’t deliver with a competitive score, as England restricted them to a paltry 112, but the bowlers fought hard and tried their best to make the most out of the contest. Their efforts helped Afghanistan in avoiding a big dip in NRR as they made England toil hard until the penultimate over of the match to chase down the total

ow Afghanistan will be banking on their bowlers once again as they gear up to tame the Kiwis this time. While the New Zealand batters have always been excellent players of pace bowling, it’s really the Afghan spinners who are going to pose a tough challenge in front of them. 

The Kiwis don’t have the best record when it comes to batting against spin. It’s been just a week since South Africa bundled them out for 98 in their warm-up fixture and the damage there was done by their spin duo of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, who picked up five wickets between them while going at just 5.50 runs per over. So, New Zealand need to be very careful while handling Afghanistan’s spin trio of Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. 

The Afghan spin trio picked up three wickets between them against England while maintaining a combined economy rate of 5.00. That’s an excellent effort while defending a low total and they will be looking to deliver an equally good performance against the Kiwis.

However, Kane Williamson and his men have momentum in their favour as they are coming into this match on the back of a big win against Australia. The batters delivered an excellent performance after the dismal show against South Africa and the bowlers were brilliant as usual. So, they are riding high on confidence right now and that plays a big part in major tournaments – this is going to be quite an exciting contest with plenty to look forward to.

Predicted Playing XIs

New Zealand 
Devon Conway (wk), Finn Allen, Kane Williamson (c), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult

Afghanistan 
Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Usman Ghani, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi