India, the great, most enthusiastic adopters of this format and clear pre‑tournament favourites – a team packed with superstars including, in Virat Kohli, the greatest of them all – are on the verge of elimination from the T20 World Cup after two matches. They spent the first half of yesterday’s game against New Zealand putting together not so much a scorecard as a resignation letter.
With Pakistan cantering to top spot in this group and Afghanistan lurking, victory was no guarantee of a semi-final place but defeat all but puts it out of reach. Despite having a week’s rest after their first game in the tournament India looked exhausted, drained of fight and ambition. “Sometimes bubble fatigue, mental fatigue creeps in when you’re doing the same thing again and again and again,” Jasprit Bumrah said afterwards.
New Zealand’s bowlers deserve great credit for restricting them to 110 but the lack of intent and ambition India showed with the bat was hard to fathom. At one point they went 71 balls without hitting a boundary, drowning in an ocean of pallid mediocrity. The Kiwis then cantered to their target with five and a half overs and eight wickets to spare as India’s failings transferred from bat to ball – they have taken two wickets altogether in their two matches.
“It was quite bizarre. To be honest I thought we weren’t brave enough with bat or ball,” Kohli said. “We were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field and New Zealand created pressure from the start. Every time we wanted to take a chance we lost a wicket. That happens in Twenty20 cricket but also comes from that little bit of hesitation with the bat.”
Again the side that won the toss chose to field and won, though given the way the game played out it took some effort to blame India’s defeat on that. Still, they gave it a good go. “In the second innings batting does get easier, so we wanted to give a cushion to our bowlers, which is why we played a lot of attacking shots,” Bumrah said. “I think that was the summary of what happened today, and that’s for everyone to see.”
What everyone saw was not an excess of attacking shots but a dearth of them, and most of the ones that were attempted sent the ball straight to fielders. It might have been worse, had Rohit Sharma not been dropped first ball by Adam Milne, playing only his third T20 international since 2018, whose evening started with this drop and a wild over that went for 15 before he rapidly improved.
Asghar Afghan ended his Afghanistan career on a high with 31 off 23 balls as his side bounced back from their agonising T20 World Cup defeat to Pakistan last time out by brushing aside Namibia in Abu Dhabi.
The former Afghanistan captain surprisingly revealed that the match against Namibia would be the last of his international career after Asif Ali's four sixes in the penultimate over had propelled Pakistan to a win on Friday. He was given a guard of honour by his teammates after being dismissed as Afghanistan racked up 160 for five having elected to bat first, a total that proved beyond Namibia, who were restricted to 98 for nine to lose by 62 runs.
An emotional Afghan, who represented his country in six Tests, 114 one-day internationals and 75 T20s, said at the halfway stage of the match: "I want to give a chance to youngsters. I think this is a good opportunity for that. Most people are asking me why now, but it's something I cannot explain. In the last match, we were hurt too much, and that's why I decided to retire. There are plenty of memories, it's difficult for me, but I have to retire."
Hazratullah Zazai (33) and Mohammad Shahzad (45) put on 53 for the first wicket, laying the foundations for a decent total for Afghanistan, with an unbeaten 32 off 17 balls from Mohammad Nabi, the captain, helping them finish with a flourish.
Although Afghanistan were without Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who was deemed unfit for this game, their bowling attack still had too much for a Namibia side that claimed a famous win over Scotland in their opening Super 12s fixture on Wednesday.
Hamid Hassan came in for Mujeeb and the fast bowler profited from the spinner's absence with sensational figures of three for nine from four overs, while his fellow quick Naveen-ul-Haq also took three wickets as Namibia fell well short. PA Media
India were 48 for three after 10 overs, at which point they clearly decided it was finally time to cut loose. So it was that when Ish Sodhi bowled the very next delivery Kohli danced down the pitch and hoisted the ball straight to Trent Boult at long-on. Back into their shells they went, emerging only to allow Ravindra Jadeja to hit a few late boundaries, so overdue they were essentially posthumous.
India’s only chance of stopping New Zealand was to take lots of wickets quickly but there was only one early breakthrough and even that was unconvincing: Martin Guptill scooped the ball to mid-off where Shardul Thakur fumbled it into his neck before gratefully catching it on the rebound. From there Daryl Mitchell, a man who had never opened an innings in professional T20 cricket before last week, clubbed his side towards victory - and India towards a brutal and probably fatal defeat.
