CHENNAI: An interesting match is on the cards when New Zealand take on Afghanistan in their ICC World Cup match at Chepauk here on Wednesday. Afghanistan are fresh from their stunning victory over defending champions England, while the Kiwis are sitting comfortably at the moment with three wins in a row. However, New Zealand would not underestimate Hashmatullah Shahidi's side and play their game in earnest as they have done so far in this tournament.
While the Kiwis' aim would be to maintain their unbeaten streak with a possible fourth win, Afghanistan buoyed by their 69-run win over England would go all out for another shock victory. New Zealand are without their skipper Kane Williamson, who suffered a left thumb fracture during the match against Bangladesh. Despite the setback, the Kiwis have a formidable batting line-up, but would be watchful against an unpredictable Afghanistan line-up that shocked England.
Afghanistan spin trio of Mujeeb ur Rahman, Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan, who picked up eight wickets among themselves against England, will employ the same tactic against New Zealand. The finalists of the previous edition too have quality spinners in the form of Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips. So it all boils down to who plays spin better.
Speaking about spin, Sunil Gavaskar had once told this daily that facing the South Zone attack in the BCCI tournaments was tougher than playing the West Indian quicks. He believed playing the likes of EAS Prasanna, BS Chandrasekar, S Venkataraghavan and VV Kumar was a tougher proposition than the West Indian pace battery. Gavaskar insisted that in order to play quality spin one needed good technique to survive.
Sachin Tendulkar too in the 90's made leg spinner L Sivaramakrishnan bowl to him in the nets and practiced the sweep shot to counter Shane Warne. Many former Indian cricketers too believe that the 'sweep shot' could be a good strategy for New Zealand to counter the Afghan spinners.
''Some guys like to sweep, some guys don't. I think from our point of view, it's guys trying to execute their plans as best they can. We'll have guys that like to go down the ground more so. And you know, I think it depends upon the surface,'' said Tom Latham. ''We're still waiting to see what the surface is going to play (behave) like. Try to have a feel of the surface and players stick to their strengths as best they can,'' added the Kiwi wicketkeeper.
New Zealand's batting order comprising Devon Conway, Rachin and Daryl Mitchell have it in them to give the team a good start. Conway, a CSK player, knows the conditions and dimensions of the ground well. Mitchell in his last game against Bangladesh showed his clean hitting skills. So one can expect a run feast from the Kiwis. Trent Boult and Matt Henry's pace too will be a big plus for the Kiwis against Afghanistan.
The Afghan batting led by in-form opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, alongside skipper Shahidi, Azmatullah Omarzai, and Ikram Alikhil could present a challenge for the Kiwi bowlers. ''Definitely, it was a big win for us against England. England are defending champion so that gives us a lot of confidence. The first two games didn't go our way but we believed in ourselves thus we won against England. So the win gave us a lot of confidence and as a team moving forward to the next game (New Zealand) we will try to maintain that momentum,'' said the Afghanistan skipper.
Shahidi insisted that despite constraints back home, his team prepared well for the tournament. ''In our country in Jalalabad, we have a stadium with good facilities. We have an academy, it's not like India but still, you can prepare yourself. Our preparations for the World Cup started 6 months back, we played a Sri Lanka series, Bangladesh and Asia Cup after that we came to Abu Dhabi so we prepared well and look forward to doing well in the remaining matches in the World Cup,'' said Shahidi.
