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- New Zealand vs Afghanistan Highlights, T20 World Cup 2021: New Zealand beat Afghanistan to enter semis; India knocked out
New Zealand vs Afghanistan Highlights, T20 World Cup 2021: New Zealand beat Afghanistan to enter semis; India knocked out
We know we have got another strong challenge coming up in a few days time but really pleasing outing today for the team. Great fielding effort as well, that was outstanding. With the day games, it's important to set the tone in the park and bring that energy and we saw that from everybody. They (England) are a very strong side, for us it's important we keep learning and focus on the sort of cricket we want to play. It's been an incredibly tough competition and we've seen a lot of tight games as well. We are looking forward to the occasion.
Kane Williamson | New Zealand captain
It was a strong performance. We know how dangerous this Afghanistan side is, they have got match-winners in all departments. It was nice to set the tone with the ball first up, take some early wickets which is always good and restricting them to a below-par score on a 150-155 surface. In the second innings, we knew there were big threats to navigate and we tried to suck things up and get as close as we could. We would have batted first today, it's not been the case in a number of the surfaces here. It's certainly been a challenge to adjust quickly playing at three different venues. That's the beauty of the game.
Kane Williamson | New Zealand captain
It was our plan to bat first and put a decent total on the board. We didn't start well, early wickets slowed us down, we built partnerships but didn't we finish well. We were 30 runs short on this pitch. We were eyeing 145-160, that would have been a decent total. Our bowling is strong, but we didn't get a good total. The pitch wasn't helpful too. We tried our best and bowled really well in this game. We have a lot of experience playing in the UAE, we played good cricket and we take a lot of positives from this tournament. Hopefully we work on our mistakes and do better in the upcoming matches.
Mohammad Nabi | Afghanistan captain
New Zealand were too good for Afghanistan today but heart break for Team India
Badrinath, former India cricketer
Nice to tick off the performance here this afternoon. Now we move forward for the business end of the tournament. Boys are feeling good. There is a big difference between the day games and the night games. We have been playing good cricket. Hopefully we can keep it going. It’s just about adapting (to the toss), executing well and chasing it down properly was what we talked about, glad that we got the job done.
Trent Boult | Player of the Match
400 T20 wickets! Well done @rashidkhan_19 What a phenomenal bowler and an outstanding match winner. Just admire the… https://t.co/yzD5P0Ipww
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) 1636288183000Next time with better planning!
Irfan Pathan tweets
Well played New Zealand 🇳🇿 congratulations for reaching the semi finals 👏
— Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) 1636290458000
Match Statistics
Venue
Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
