T20 WC: Williamson ready for Afghanistan challenge after win vs Namibia

Kane Williamson-led New Zealand produced a superlative effort to beat Namibia by 52 runs in a Super 12 group 1 match of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday afternoon. Namibia, after stemming the flow of runs in the initial overs and then in the middle overs, left the tap open as the Kiwis scored freely to post a competitive target (163/4) on board.

Chasing the target, Namibia never really got off to a solid start and could not find the momentum they were looking for. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals. However, New Zealand bowlers made sure to give their captain an important win and be alive in the competition.

With the Namibia challenge done and dusted, Williamson now has his focus set on Afghanistan. A match that will garner a lot of views and all the Indian fans will be hoping for Afghanistan to win the encounter.

“They (Afghanistan) are a strong side and they have played good cricket, they have some match-winners throughout their team. Looking forward to that challenge. It’s a different venue so we need to make those adjustments quickly, it’s the nature of this tournament. You got to play at different venues and adjust quickly,” New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said during the post-match presentation.

Talking about the match against Namibia, Williamson said: “I think we all know what we have to expect here (Sharjah), it’s a real scrap. We tried to maximise that short side, it was a challenging surface. The guys played well to get us to 160.”

“You need to build those partnerships and trying to maximise towards the end. An over or two can crack the game, that was our focus today. We got some reasonable match-ups and got what’s about par on this wicket,” the right-handed batsman added.

Currently, New Zealand are second in the points table.