Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqi, left, celebrates the dismissal of New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell during an ICC Men's T20 World Cup cricket match at Guyana National Stadium in Providence, Guyana. (AP)At this point, it should not come as a surprise when the Afghanistan cricket team pull off a win at the biggest stages against the traditional powerhouses. On Saturday, they didn’t just beat New Zealand at Providence Stadium, Guyana. They outplayed the Kiwis, the masters of showing up in good form at these ICC events.
Kane Williamson and Co. would have known before the match that this wasn’t going to be easy even if they hit the ground running close to their top level. Turned out, they were nowhere near that. And Afghanistan pounced. They won by a whopping 84 runs to make it two wins out of two and put one foot in the Super 8.
These are no longer upsets, these are moments of vindication for a side that has constantly punched above their collective weight.
But at the T20 World Cup, these wins have not been that frequent. There was that day at the 2016 edition, when they defeated eventual champions West Indies, but it came when the result didn’t matter for each side’s progress in the tournament. That day, however, the seeds were sown. Mohammad Nabi, the man who’s seen it all, tweeted afterward: “We have had enough of winning the hearts of cricket fans so this time we won the match.”
I think so we have had enough of winning the hearts of cricket fans so this time we won the match. pic.twitter.com/X51us3fkh3
— Mohammad Nabi (@MohammadNabi007) March 27, 2016
This Afghanistan side means business, especially in conditions with assistance for bowlers. That is why it was important to turn up against New Zealand and show they are not here to just compete for a win or two.
“It’s one of the greatest victories for us especially in T20Is, you know we haven’t had those victories in T20 World Cups. We had in ODI, but in T20, this was one of the best performances from the guys and it’s not just about a single guy winning the game. It’s a great team effort,” captain Rashid Khan said after the match.
And it wasn’t just mere lip service. Afghanistan had multiple match-winners. A superb opening partnership set the platform once again, and it was Rahmanullah Gurbaz who led the way with 80 off 56 balls. There were a couple of other handy contributions from Ibrahim Zadran and Azmatullah Omarzai as they went on turbo mode after 10 overs to post 159/6.
With the ball, they are not just about the spinners anymore. In Fazalhaq Farooqi, they have that new-ball left-arm pace weapon that teams crave for in T20 cricket. After a match-winning 5/9 against Uganda, he zoned in straight away against NZ. First ball of the run-chase, a terrific inswinging full delivery sent Finn Allen’s stumps into disarray. Devon Conway’s wicket followed in the third over, and Daryl Mitchell in the fifth over. Farooqi broke the NZ chase before it ever got going. Fittingly he picked up the last wicket too.
Then, of course, there was Rashid Khan. After a not-so-great IPL by his standards, he showed up in the middle overs at his very best, picking up 4/17, including the key wicket of Kane Williamson, who guided a ball straight to the lone slip.
For their part, New Zealand looked woefully short of zeal. The first half of their fielding effort was littered with mistakes and while batting too, they appeared rusty. Ian Smith, the voice that is most associated with New Zealand cricket now, repeatedly pointed out that NZ have come into the tournament undercooked, with no international cricket and even in the IPL, most of their players not having the most consistent runs.
One of those rusty players on the day was the otherwise dependable Devon Conway. With the gloves, Conway missed a fairly regular stumping, because he was about half a second late to react to Mitch Santner’s arm-ball, when Gurbaz was on 12 off 14. Then with Gurbaz on 19, Conway failed to collect a throw with Gurbaz stranded after a mixup. There were other mishaps on the field too, very unlike what we have come to expect from the Black Caps.
“Our fielding didn’t help our cause without a doubt,” Williamson said after the match. “That would be the most frustrating part for me. It is something we pride ourselves on, so that was very disappointing but that performance from us married up to an outstanding performance from Afghanistan meant that it wasn’t good enough. And they showed their skill today and we were outplayed.”
With two big wins in the bag at a Net Run Rate of 5.225, and a match to come against Papua New Guinea, it would be a massive surprise if Afghanistan don’t progress from this group.
“Now we need to beat the teams with our own skills rather than think about the opposition much and that’s the only thing I have been telling the guys. It’s more about how good you are, how good you’re going to play and what type of energy you are coming into the ground with,” Rashid said.
That, more than anything, signifies the real change in narrative around Afghanistan. It’s about how good they can be on their day. And the other teams at the World Cup will do well to take note.
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