New Zealand got off to a winning start in the 2026 edition of the T20 World Cup in their opening match of the tournament, comfortably by five wickets, courtesy of a half-century from Tim Seifert, along with timely contributions from Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell, who finished the game off for the BlackCaps.
T20 World Cup: Summary of the Game
Opting to bat first after winning the toss, Afghanistan got off to a good start with the opening pair of Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz adding 35 runs for the first wicket in five overs before Zadran was dismissed and was followed by his opening partner nine runs later.
T20 World Cup: The Consolidation
The fall of two wickets in quick succession meant that the Afghan batting pair of Gulbadin Naib, who came in to bat at number three, and Sediqullah Atal had to sit back and form a much-needed partnership, and that’s exactly what both batters did by adding 79 runs for the third wicket, taking Afghanistan’s score to 123 after 14.3 overs.
The pick of the batters for Afghanistan was Naib, who scored 63 runs off 35 balls, including three fours and four sixes and held the innings together from one end.
T20 World Cup: The Bowling
As far as New Zealand’s bowling is concerned, it started well by keeping the Afghan batters quiet in the first six overs.
The fast bowling trio of Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy and Lockie Ferguson kept the openers in check by bowling hard lengths on a pitch which had some uneven bounce but change bowlers went away from the plan in the middle phase of the innings and started dishing full length diiveries making things easy for the opposition batters as a result Afghanistan was able to post a competitive total of 182 runs on the board.
T20 World Cup: The Chase
The Rashid Khan-led side started the defence on a positive note by picking up back-to-back wickets on the score of 14 when Mujeeb Ur Rahman cleaned up Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra on consecutive deliveries, giving Afghanistan an upper hand.
However, the joy of early breakthrougs were cutshot when Tim Siefert and Glenn Phillips came together to dictate terms in the middle overs by creating pressure on the Afghanistan bowlers
Read More
The duo added 74 runs for the third wicket at a good pace, thereby taking the Kiwis close to the target.
T20 World Cup: The Finishing Act
When Tim Siefert was dismissed after scoring 65 runs off 42 balls Afghanista might have fancied their chances of making a comeback with New Zealand still needing 59 runs, but the chances were soon diminished by some intelligent cricket from Daryl Mitchell, who took the team over the line.
