India knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2021 after New Zealand defeat Afghanistan.
T20 World Cup 2021: Virat Kohli and his men’s campaign in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021 has come to an end after Kane Williamson-led New Zealand thrashed Afghanistan, crushing India’s aspiration to enter the semi-finals of the showpiece event.
In the match between New Zealand and Afghanistan, which was apparently the decider for the second semi-finalists from group 2, the kiwis defeated Afghanistan by eight wickets to claim their deserved spot in the semi-finals.
The kiwis, right from the start, kept their hold on the match as they pushed the Afghans on the backfoot with three early breakthroughs. Mohammad Shahzad, Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz were sent to the dugout early on.
Najibullah Zadran, though, did some rescue work to keep Afghanistan’s hopes alive, however, he didn’t get support from the other end. Zardan played a sensational inning of 73 runs from 48 balls which included six fours and three sixes.
Afghanistan totalled 125 runs from their 20 overs with Najibullah Zadran doing the maximum work for the team.
For New Zealand Trent Boult picked three wickets while Tim Southee got two and Adam Milne, James Neesham and Ish Sodhi went with one wicket apiece.
Kane Williamson once again played a crucial knock of unbeaten 40 runs from 42 deliveries while Devon Conway, from the other end, extended his support with an unbeaten 36 from 32 balls.
Afghanistan bowlers managed to scalp just two wickets as Daryl Mitchell and Martin Guptil both returned back to the hut after amassing 17 and 28 runs respectively.
New Zealand chased down the modest total of 125 runs in 18.1 overs with eight wickets in hand. It was a fairly easy ask for the kiwis after they managed a good powerplay score of 45 runs.
With New Zealand becoming the second team after Pakistan to reach the semi-final from group 2, the campaign for the Indian side is over now.
Virat Kohli and Co will play out tomorrow’s match against Namibia as their last game, which will be of no significance.
Top four semi-finalists of the T20 World Cup 2021:
Group1: England, Australia.
Group2: Pakistan, New Zealand.
