ODI World Cup: Young, Latham, Phillips steer New Zealand to 288/6 against impressive Afghans

Chennai: New Zealand recovered well from a mini mid-innings slump to post a commendable 288 for six against a gritty Afghanistan in a World Cup group league match here on Wednesday.

Will Young (54), Tom Latham (68) and Glenn Phillips (71) scored half-centuries to ensure that the Black Caps posted an above-par total on a track where stroke-making isn’t the easiest of proposition.

Phillips and Latham put on 144 invaluable runs for the fifth wicket and it could well prove to be a game-changer.

Put into bat first, the Kiwis lost opener Devon Conway (20) in the seventh over, with spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman trapping him leg-before.

However, the pair of opener Young and in-form batter Rachin Ravindra (32) took charge and put on a convincing 79-run stand for the second wicket.

A chance to stump Ravindra was missed, whereas spinner Mohammad Nabi was put under pressure by the Black Caps batters, as he was attacked quite regularly.

Eventually, it was pacer Azmatullah Omarzai who got the partnership broken in the 21st over, cleaning up Ravindra off a straight delivery, as the batter attempted to swing it towards mid-wicket, but missed it completely in the process.

It was at this moment the New Zealanders had a brief collapse, losing Young and Daryl Mitchell (1) by the 22nd over to Omarzai and spinner Rashid Khan, respectively, as the score read 110 for four.

While Young had already scored his seventh ODI half-century, he was notably dropped in the second over by Rahmat Shah off Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Nevertheless, New Zealand managed to recover soon as skipper Latham and Phillips put up another fine stand that defined the tone for the rest of their innings.

The duo also brought up their respective 23rd and third ODI half-centuries each, despite the Afghani bowlers keeping the Kiwi scoring rate in check.

As the pair began upping the ante and the scoring rate post the 45th over, the partnership was broken by pacer Naveen-ul-Haq in the 48th, with both the set batters departing in the same over.

But, there was still some work to be done, and it was Mark Chapman (25 not out) who came up with some late blitz, including two fours and a six, to ensure that the Black Caps went past the 275-run mark on this track.

For Afghanistan, Omarzai and Naveen were the stars with the ball, seizing a couple of wickets each, whereas Rashid was a no-brainer with his economical spell.

However, a total of three dropped catches did make things a bit hard for the Afghans, especially Rashid, who saw a couple of his chances go a-begging.