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New Zealand makes it 5-0 with Afghanistan rout

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New-ZealandNapier, New Zealand’s self-proclaimed art deco capital, might consider itself a little left behind this World Cup. This picturesque ground, encircled by palm trees, was only awarded three games in the tournament – and those pitting the UAE against Pakistan and then the West Indies were always going to be hard to sell.

So, when Mohammad Nabi, the Afghanistan captain, opted to bat after winning the toss against New Zealand on Sunday (March 8), Napier feared that its biggest day of this World Cup would be over when it had barely begun.

Revelers who turned up ten minutes’ late had already missed two Afghan wickets. If Javed Ahmadi falling lbw to Trent Boult was unsurprising, few would have expected Daniel Vettori to take a wicket from the 13th ball of the day.

Entrusting Vettori with the third over was the latest example of Brendon McCullum’s inventiveness, even if this one seemed to owe more to a desire for Boult and Tim Southee to switch ends than any grand plan for the Afghan batsmen.

With his very first ball, Vettori produced a deliciously flighted delivery that advanced through the inviting gap between Usman Ghani’s bat and pad, who played for turn that was lacking.

It is a trick Vettori has pulled many times before. The wonder is how, aged 36 and after two years decimated by his Achilles tendon, Vettori has reinvigorated himself in the World Cup. Such has been the craft with which Vettori has bowled in this tournament that it is easy to forget that he was far from a guaranteed selection. In the ten One-Day Internationals he bowled in after his return from injury in October to the start of the World Cup, Vettori went wicketless in seven.

It mattered not. New Zealand always intended to use Vettori’s cunning and equanimity at the World Cup. He has varied his pace and flight wonderfully in all five games so far, as his figures of 4 for 18 here were testament to.

Like so many others before, Nawroz Mangal injudiciously tried to cut a Vettori delivery when he lacked the room to do so. As the ball smeared into his off stump, Vettori became the first New Zealander, and just the 12th bowler ever, to reach 300 ODI wickets. When Mohammad Nabi and Afsar Zazai fell in consecutive balls thereafter, the latter beguiled by a quicker delivery, Vettori was on a hat-trick and Afghanistan were 59 for 6.

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