Iqbal Jamil
KARACHI: India look towards sky, after beaten by New Zealand convincingly by 8 wickets in the crucial match played in Dubai on Sunday, with the hope that Afghanistan beat New Zealand in the forthcoming round match so that India could reach the semi-final, if their run rate would be better.
Put into bat, Indian batsmen struggled throughout the innings and could manage to score 32 for the loss of 2 wickets in the power play. Top and middle order batsmen failed due to the accurate and good bowling by New Zealand bowlers. Jadeja scored 26 of 19 balls and Pandya scored 23 runs. In the allotted overs India scored 110 for the loss of 7 wickets.
New Zealand bowlers Trent Boult took 3 wickets for 20 runs and Ish Sodhi claimed 2 wickets for 17 runs. Chasing 111 to win New Zealand reached the target with 33 balls to go, scoring 111 for the loss of 2 wickets. Daryl Mitchel played good knock scoring 49 runs in 35 balls and Williamson made 33 runs. Both New Zealand’s wicket was claimed by Jasprit Bumrah.
In the second match played Sunday, Afghanistan outclassed Namibia beating them by 62 runs. Afghanistan batted first and scored 160 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Afghanistan started their innings on a solid note scoring 53 runs in the power play with Mohammad Shahzad scoring 45 runs of 27 balls, Hazratullah Zazai scored 33 off 27 deliveries and Mohammad Nabi made 32 of 23 balls. Ruben Trumplemann and Loftie Eaton took 2 wickets each for Namibia.
Chasing a target of 161 to win, Namibia never looked to achieve it due to excellent bowling by Naveen ul Haq and Hamid Hasan, both took 3 wickets each.
Namibia scored 98 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted overs. David Wiese was the top scorer for Namibia with 26 runs.
