Today’s match :
The 16th match of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 will be played between New Zealand and Afghanistan (NZ vs AFG) on Wednesday 18 October at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
Previous matches of both teams :
Afghanistan have raised alarm bells for all the World Cup teams by defeating defending title winners England and New Zealand will not make the mistake of taking it easy in the match on Wednesday. The New Zealand contingent will look to continue their unbeaten run in the event. Afghanistan, which defeated England by 69 runs in the last match in Delhi, will be aiming to cause another upset.
New Zealand has won all three matches so far and on the basis of run rate, it is in second place behind India. In the first two matches, Afghanistan was defeated by Bangladesh and India, but in the third match, Hashmatullah Shahidi’s platoon created a new history by defeating a giant like England. New Zealand will once again be led by wicketkeeper batsman Tom Latham as regular captain Kane Williamson is out for a few matches due to a fracture in his left thumb.
Fast bowler Tim Southee has recovered from a thumb injury and it remains to be seen whether he is fit to play in this match or not. New Zealand have batsmen like Will Young, Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell in the top order while all-rounder Rachin Ravindra has also performed impressively. Now they will face the spin of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, who troubled England a lot. Let us know what the mood of the pitch is going to be in this interesting match.
Pitch report :
Let us tell you that the match between New Zealand and Afghanistan will be played at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The Chennai pitch is known for its slow nature. Chepauk’s pitch proves to be a heaven for bowlers. Then they get more help. Then the batsmen have to struggle a bit to score runs. From time to time, fast bowlers also prove to be effective on this pitch. A total of 36 ODI matches have been played on this ground so far, out of which 17 matches have been won by the batting first and 18 matches have been won by the batting later. Then not many high scoring matches are seen. In ODI, the average score of the first innings in Chepauk is 224 runs while the average score of the second innings is 206.
Players of both teams :
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Devon Conway, Will Young, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry.
Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hasan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Umarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Noor Ahmed, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Abdul Rehman, Naveen Ul Haq.
