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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Gurbaz, Fazalhaq, Khan combine to stun NZ

by

Sport Desk
410 days ago
20240609
Captain Rashid Khan (left) celebrates one of his four wickets.

Captain Rashid Khan (left) celebrates one of his four wickets.

GEORGE­TOWN – Open­er Rah­man­ul­lah Gur­baz struck a Man-of-the-Match half-cen­tu­ry, and Fazal­haq Fa­rooqi and cap­tain Rashid Khan fol­lowed up with four-wick­et hauls, as Afghanistan stunned New Zealand by 84 runs in their Group C con­test of the Twen­ty20 World Cup in Guyana.

Sent in at the Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um on Fri­day, Afghanistan racked up 159 for six with the 22-year-old Gur­baz top-scor­ing with an en­ter­pris­ing 80 off 56 de­liv­er­ies.

He belt­ed five fours and five six­es and put on 103 for the first wick­et with Ibrahim Zad­ran who made a mea­sured 44 from 41 balls with three fours and two six­es, while Az­mat­ul­lah Omarzai made 22.

What should have been a rel­a­tive­ly straight­for­ward chase for the Black Caps quick­ly turned com­pli­cat­ed as they were quick­ly rolled over for 75 in the 16th over with left-arm seam­er Fazal­haq and leg-spin­ner Rashid Khan both claim­ing four for 17.

The vic­to­ry was Afghanistan’s sec­ond win in as many games, putting them on top of the group on four points while New Zealand are bot­tom af­ter play­ing their on­ly game.

“Def­i­nite­ly I think it’s one of the great­est vic­to­ry for us spe­cial­ly in T20, you know we haven’t had those vic­to­ries in T20 World Cups,” said Rashid Khan.

“We had in ODI but in T20 I feel like 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 the way Gur­baz and Ibrahim start­ed the in­nings.

“They took their time and they knew like you know what they’re do­ing.”

The ear­ly as­sault from Gur­baz and Ibrahim put New Zealand un­der ear­ly pres­sure, the pair gath­er­ing 44 from the first pow­er-play be­fore the scor­ing slowed as Afghanistan crawled to 55 at the half-way mark.

How­ev­er, a 21-run over from off-spin­ner Michael Bracewell in the 11th over, opened the flood­gates for the Asian side as they plun­dered 42 from the next three.

In re­ply, the tone was set from the first ball of the chase when Fazal­haq re­moved Finn Allen’s leg stump and there was no re­cov­ery for the Black Caps as on­ly two bats­men made it in­to dou­ble fig­ures but nei­ther get­ting to 20.

CMC

Scores:

AFGHANISTAN 159 for six off 20 overs (Rah­man­ul­lah Gur­baz 80, Ibrahim Zad­ran 44, Az­mat­ul­lah Omarzai 22; Trent Boult 2-22, Matt Hen­ry 2-37).

NEW ZEALAND 75 all out off 15.2 overs (Rashid Khan 4-17, Fazal­haq Fa­rooqi 4-17, Mo­ham­mad Nabi 2-16).

Afghanistan won by 84 runs.

Play­er of the Match: Rah­man­ul­lah Gur­baz (Afghanistan)


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