T20 World Cup, New Zealand vs Afghanistan: Black Caps crash to ...

After spending several months with their feet up, the Black Caps produced their worst performance in years.

It wasn’t so much the result that shocked as New Zealand began their T20 World Cup campaign by crashing to an 84-run defeat by Afghanistan in Guyana.

Maybe that comprehensive margin hadn’t quite been anticipated but there was plenty of warning that Afghanistan were primed to beat the Black Caps for the first time.

The performance, though, was truly shocking as Kane Williamson’s side crumbled to their fourth-lowest T20 total, backing up a subpar effort with the ball and, especially, in the field.

Chasing 160 on what had appeared a good surface during the first innings, the Black Caps lost Finn Allen first ball and another wicket every other over as they slumped to 43-5. The carnage was far from complete.

With only Glenn Phillips and Matt Henry scratching to double figures, New Zealand staggered to 54-7 at the halfway mark. And the tail — never expected to do much in this format — didn’t do much as Afghanistan completed the rout by dismissing their opponents for 75 in the 16th over.

If one side looked a little short of cricket, there was good reason. The Black Caps hadn’t played a game at full strength since the end of the home summer, with the majority of the squad spending the intervening months on the sidelines during the IPL.

Ten days’ practice was the extent of their preparation in the Caribbean while Afghanistan had enjoyed both a warm-up fixture and a first-up thrashing of minnows Uganda.

That unflattering descriptor no longer applies to the Asian nation, having beaten England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka at last year’s ODI World Cup. Now, with New Zealand added to their list of scalps, Afghanistan will be favourites to progress from pool C.

Given the group also includes the West Indies, the Black Caps will need to overcome the co-hosts on June 13 if they wish to somehow recover and maintain an enviable semifinal streak at world tournaments.

It seems much more likely their tournament will be over by this time next week.

No New Zealand player fired throughout Saturday’s one-sided contest, as first opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (80 off 56) and then dangerman Rashid Khan (4-17) seized complete command.

Facing a pace-bowling trio that rarely applied pressure and a spin duo that created only a couple of chances, Afghanistan were almost always in control of their innings — aided by a sloppy all-round fielding effort.

It would be easy to ascribe the dropped catches and missed runout chances to recent inactivity. But over the summer, when the Black Caps were playing plenty of cricket, they were just as bad.

As much as fielding was a strength for so long, it has now become one of this team’s biggest weaknesses.

Little went right once New Zealand won the toss, the tone soon set. After Mitchell Santner was unlucky to miss the wicket of Ibrahim Zadran, clipping the stump without dislodging a bail, Allen began a dismal day by making a mess of a straightforward catch from the same batter.

Devon Conway came into this game even more underdone than his teammates — having ended a miserable summer with a broken thumb that gave him three months off — and it showed.

The wicketkeeper earned his part-time tag and, aside from one four-over spell in the middle stages, the bowling attack allowed easy runs as the openers eased to a century stand.

Following the loss of his partner in the 15th over, Gurbaz flayed an ineffective Henry, preferred to Tim Southee, while Michael Bracewell began well but ended expensive after squeezing out Ish Sodhi.

The batting effort, somehow, was uglier than all that had proceeded, though Fazalhaq Farooqi (4-17) earned tremendous credit by taking the top off the order.

The left-arm quick was occasionally unplayable, but only occasionally. He and his fellow bowlers were helped by a succession of poor shot choices and poorer execution.

Conway and Williamson encapsulated that: the former chipping out tamely after a string of let-offs, the latter opening the bat to Rashid and edging him straight to a grateful first slip.

The skipper reacted by throwing back his head in disgust, a gesture undoubtedly repeated around the country.