{"id":635,"date":"2026-02-08T11:08:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T11:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/?p=635"},"modified":"2026-02-08T11:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T11:08:49","slug":"afghanistan-lose-to-new-zealand-in-t20-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/?p=635","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan lose to New Zealand in T20 World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/main><\/p>\n

Afghanistan lose to New Zealand in T20 World Cup opener<\/h1>\n

Tim Seifert and Glenn \u200dPhillips rally in the middle order to help New Zealand overcome Afghanistan in Chennai, India.<\/em><\/p>\n

New Zealand’s Tim Seifert plays a shot during the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup group stage match against Afghanistan at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, India, on February 8, 2026 [R Satish Babau\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
By <\/span>News Agencies<\/div>\n

Published On 8 Feb 2026<\/span>8 Feb 2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

\n

New Zealand pulled \u200coff a steep chase against Afghanistan\u2019s spin-heavy attack to begin their ICC Men\u2019s Twenty20 World Cup campaign with a five-wicket victory in a Group D match in the south Indian city of Chennai on Sunday.<\/p>\n

In the 2024 edition of the tournament, it was a loss to Afghanistan that put New Zealand on the path to an early exit, but Mitchell Santner and his team did not \u2060let history repeat itself.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

list of 2 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n

Gulbadin Naib\u2019s rapid 63 provided the bedrock of Afghanistan\u2019s strong 182-6 following skipper Rashid Khan\u2019s decision to bat first at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.<\/p>\n

Tim Seifert (65) and Glenn Phillips (42) helped New Zealand overcome a top-order wobble and chase down the target with 13 balls to spare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always nice to start the tournament with a few runs, but the main thing is we got the win,\u201d player of the \u2060match Seifert said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a couple of early wickets, so it\u2019s nice to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Afghanistan began briskly, but Lockie Ferguson\u2019s double strike in the final powerplay over reduced them to 44-2.<\/p>\n

Number three batter Naib took his time to find his feet before racing to a 29-ball fifty as he and Sediqullah Atal (29) rebuilt the Afghan innings.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan then milked 110 runs in the final 10 overs of the innings, giving their spin-heavy attack a strong total to defend on a surface that \u200caided their craft.<\/p>\n

All-rounder Gulbadin Naib top-scored for Afghanistan with 63 from just 35 deliveries [R Satish Babu\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When New Zealand began their chase, wily off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman was pressed into service in the second over, immediately dismissing opener Finn Allen and next man in Rachin Ravindra \u2013 both bowled \u2013 in successive deliveries to stun \u200cthe Kiwis.<\/p>\n

Advertisement <\/span><\/p>\n

Seifert and Phillips then fought fire with fire in a 74-run partnership off 47 balls that put the pressure back on Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Rashid \u200cremoved Phillips but dropped a return catch from Seifert at \u2060a crucial juncture in the match.<\/p>\n

The batter went on to hit Mohammed Nabi for back-to-back sixes, followed by a four before falling to the off-spinner.<\/p>\n

Mark Chapman fell for 28, but Daryl Mitchell (25) and Santner (17) batted calmly to guide New Zealand to \u200cvictory.<\/p>\n

Rashid was not happy with how Afghanistan bowled in the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we have not landed the ball in the right areas consistently,\u201d the all-rounder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allowed them to score so many runs in the middle overs. If we could have bowled into the stumps and in the good length, it would have been very hard to score.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afghanistan lose to New Zealand in T20 World Cup opener Tim Seifert and Glenn \u200dPhillips rally in the middle order to help New Zealand overcome Afghanistan in Chennai, India. New Zealand’s Tim Seifert plays a shot during the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup group stage match against Afghanistan at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypremiumbulletin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}