ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 - West Indies & USA

Match 14 Group C
Afghanistan v New Zealand - Guyana - 00.30 BST
NewZealand elected to field
Afghanistan 159-6 (20 overs)
New Zealand 79 (15.2 overs)
Afghanistan won by 84 runs

Match 15 Group D
Sri Lanka v Bangladesh - Dallas - 01.30 BST
Bangladesh elected to field
Sri Lanka 124-9 (20 overs)
Bangladesh 125-8 (19 overs)
Bangladesh won by 2 wickets

New Zealand thrashed by a totally rampant Afghanistan.
One heck of a bowling display to skittle the Kiwis out for 75.

Wow .

We all know that Afghanistan possess attacking batsmen, have great spin options & more recently decent pace bowling, so this wasn't a total surprise, but more the nature of the defeat, New Zealand have a settled team/squad & are always competitive, even in defeat. To get turned over in such emphatic fashion is unusual to say the least. The only caveat would be the decision to not play any warm-up games, they looked of the pace in the field with dropped catches & a missed run out.

Credit must go too Afghanistan, who appeared to play the perfect game. A slow but steady start, a modest 55 runs for no loss in 10 overs, then 106 for 6 in the remaining 10 overs. Gurbaz the standout with 80 from 56 balls, added 103 in 114.2 overs with Ibrahim (44). They are now the only pair of openers to register back to back century stands in a World Cup, after the 154 against Uganda. Number 3 Omarzai scored 22 off 13 balls with a four & 2 sixes to push his side up to a challenging total on a helpful pitch.
The left-arm pace of Farooqi gave Afghanistan the perfect start as he clean bowled Allen with the first ball of the innings, he book-ended the innings with the wicket of Henry for 12 to complete figures of 3.2-0-17-4. Phillips (18) was the only other double figure score. Rashid Khan matched the figures of Farooqi, his 4-17 coming off 4 overs.

The ball to get Mitchell out was a corker from Farooqi. A pretty much unplayable delivery.

Sri Lanka pushed Bangladesh hard in the field, but ultimately their inability to accelerate from a good platform (100-3 after 14 overs) prevented them from setting a much higher target on a good batting surface. Only Nissanka (47 from 28 balls) & Mendis (10) had strike rates above 100. Losing 6-24 in 6 overs was the match.
In the chase Bangladesh made a recovery from 28-3 in the 6th over, with a partnership of 63 between Das (36) & Hridoy who made 40 from just 20 balls including 3 sixes. The wickets of both in batsmen created a bit of a wobble, but Bangladesh had the experience of Mahmudullah to steer his side over the line despite the efforts of Thushara (4-18).

Match 16 Group D
Netherlands v South Africa - New York - 15.30 BST
Toss - South Africa elected to field
Netherlands 103-9 (20 overs)
South Africa 1o6-6 (18.5 overs)
South Africa won by 4 wickets

Match 17 Group B
Australia v England - Barbados - 18.00 BST
Toss - England elected to field
Australia 201-7 (20 overs)
England 165-6 (20 overs)
Australia won by 36 runs

Sloppy stuff from England so far.

Match 18 Group C
West Indies v Uganda - Guyana - 01.30
Toss - West Indies elected to bat
West Indies 173-5 (20 overs)
Uganda 39 (12 overs)
West Indies won by 134 runs