New Zealand eye UAE scalp with Afghanistan watching

The margins are very tight in a World Cup when you're in the 'Group of Death'. For Afghanistan to repeat their 2024 heroics in 2026, it was vital for them to cross their first hurdle. A match-up against New Zealand in Chennai - a side they beat in the last edition - is something they would have fancied over a match-up against South Africa in Ahmedabad. But now that they've slipped, Afghanistan will have to hope one of the two Associate teams can do something that they couldn't, which is to topple New Zealand.

While the possibility of UAE gunning down New Zealand remains dim, it cannot be completely ruled out. The difference between a Pakistan win and an upset on the opening day was one dropped catch. USA had the defending champions India on the mat at 77/6, Nepal almost pulled off a blinder against England before falling four runs short. While these Associate teams couldn't really get the job done, they have all stretched their much-fancied opponents. UAE themselves have beaten New Zealand in a T20I two and a half years ago. Some of the players who are in the current New Zealand setup played in that fixture.

UAE also gave a good account of themselves in a tri-series last August, pushing Afghanistan and Pakistan in one game each. They will have to draw inspiration from those performances because the batting department remains UAE's biggest stumbling block. They struggled against Ireland recently and had a shocker against World Cup debutants Italy in a warm-up game, getting bowled out for just 81. If Chepauk dishes out a batting beauty, UAE's chances diminish even further. The recent series against India has toughened up New Zealand. Even losing early wickets in the first game against Afghanistan didn't set them back as they chased down 183 with 13 balls to spare. They will fancy themselves to consolidate their grip on the group.

Most of the New Zealand players opted to not train having played their opening fixture just 24 hours ago. Finn Allen and Rachin Ravindra, the two players who departed early against Afghanistan, had a long session in the nets with Ish Sodhi at times opting to bowl off spin against the left-hander. They are all set to retain the same XI.

"I think that's been good for the whole tournament as well. Those games are, I guess you can have a sort of a lackadaisical mindset going into those sorts of games, but you need to understand it is a World Cup. You do have your own styles of playing your cricket and I guess standards you want to set. So it's making sure we do that and that is in the field, it's with the bat, it's with the ball, it's knowing that the way we want to present ourselves, the presence we want to have out on the pitch, it doesn't matter who it's against" - New Zealand batting coach Luke Ronchi on the Associate nations pushing the top teams in the competition early on

"From the warm-up games, we learned so many things, especially in the batting and the fielding, you know, it's a little bit bigger ground. So in the fielding side, we learned so many things, how we can cut the doubles into the singles. And as a batting team, I think we have to bat a little bit long for the last four or five overs." - UAE captain Muhammad Waseem

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