Afghanistan also qualified for the Super-8 of the T20 World Cup by registering a hat-trick of tournament wins with a seven-wicket win over Papua New Guinea at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Afghanistan’s victory is a big blow for New Zealand. The Kiwi team’s target of reaching the Super-8 could not be achieved.

New Zealand is at the bottom of Group C with two losses in two matches. Afghanistan and West Indies won all three matches in the group. With this, New Zealand faced consecutive defeats and the team is out of the race for the tournament. Talking about this match, Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bowl against Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea were bowled out for 95 in 19.5 overs, with wicketkeeper-batsman Kiplin Doriga scoring the highest 27 runs. In reply, Afghanistan achieved the target of 96 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 15.1 overs on the back of Gulbadin’s 49-run innings. However, Afghanistan got off to a bad start chasing the 96-run target. The team lost the wickets of openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran in the first three overs and the powerplay ended at 39/2. Gulbadin, who came in at number three, handled the innings. Even after this, Afghanistan lost wickets but Gulbadin remained at the crease.

After playing a combative innings, Naib hit a six to give Afghanistan the win.