New Delhi: With the help of the century partnership of young batsman Glenn Phillips and captain Tom Latham, New Zealand, despite going through some adverse circumstances, made a challenging score of 288 runs for six wickets in the ODI World Cup match against Afghanistan here on Wednesday. Phillips scored 71 runs in 80 balls with the help of four fours and as many sixes. Latham scored 68 runs in 74 balls which included three fours and two sixes. Both of them made a partnership of 144 runs for the fifth wicket due to which New Zealand was successful in adding 103 runs in the last 10 overs. Before these two, Will Young (54 runs on 64 balls, four fours, three sixes) also played a half-century. Azmat Omarzai and Naveen Ul Haq took two wickets each for Afghanistan, which caused the first upset of the tournament by defeating defending champions England. The start was not favorable for New Zealand. First he lost the toss and then in the seventh over he lost the wicket of in-form opener Devon Conway (20). Mujeeb Ur Rahman's appeal was turned down by the umpire, but after DRS, Conway had to find his way to the pavilion. Young and Rachin Ravindra (32 off 41 balls) took advantage of Afghanistan's poor fielding and scored runs with ease and added 79 runs for the second wicket. In this way, New Zealand made at least a half-century partnership for the second wicket for the fourth consecutive match. Both these batsmen got life in the beginning of their innings. New Zealand's batsmen put pressure on experienced spinner Mohammad Nabi. Young hit two of his three sixes on this bowler while Ravidra also sent his ball once for six runs. However, Ravindra was not looking in the same rhythm as in the previous matches. On the other hand, Young scored his second consecutive half-century by hitting a four on Rashid Khan. When New Zealand was moving forward strongly, it lost three wickets in eight balls. Omarzai sent both the frozen batsmen to the pavilion in the 21st over of the innings. He first scattered Ravindra's wickets and then got Young caught by the wicketkeeper. Rashid showed the way to the comeback to the new batsman Daryl Mitchell (01) in the next over. Due to this the score increased from 109 runs for one wicket to 110 runs for four wickets. There was pressure on the Kiwi batsmen and the Afghanistan bowlers did not even allow them to play freely. This was the reason why 29 runs were scored from 21st to 30th over and 47 runs were scored from 31st to 40th over. Meanwhile, only four fours and one six were hit. Phillips completed his half-century off 69 balls and then hit two consecutive sixes on fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqui. Latham also hit two consecutive sixes and then a four on Omarzai after completing his half-century in 67 balls. Naveen dismissed both of them within three balls. After this Mark Chapman scored unbeaten 25 runs in 12 balls. He hit two fours and a six in one over of Omarzai.
