Afghanistan win toss and choose to bat against New Zealand

NAPIER (Reuters) - Ross Taylor and Grant Elliott may not get the opportunity to gain some valuable time in the middle after Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi won the toss and chose to bat against New Zealand in their Pool A World Cup clash at McLean Park on Sunday.





Brendon McCullum's side have bowled superbly in their four wins during the tournament skittling Scotland, England and Australia for small totals, while Afghanistan were bowled out for 142 by Australia on Wednesday.

New Zealand have only batted first once and with the small victory targets and a belligerent McCullum blasting away at the top of the order, time in the middle for many of the batsmen has been restricted.

Taylor has scored a total of 29 runs in four innings while Elliott was bowled for a first ball duck against Australia and did not bat at all in the eight-wicket victory over England in the match before that.

McCullum had confirmed on Saturday they would be unchanged for the fifth successive match.

Afghanistan had a tough travel schedule in the last week, moving on quickly from their first victory over Scotland in Dunedin to Perth, where they were hammered by Australia, before flying back to Napier.

"It's not ideal. We were in Dunedin and it would have been much better and easier for us to come straight here then go to Perth," coach Andy Moles said before the game.

"It's true to say we are bit weary (but) we are not using it as an excuse."

New Zealand - Brendon McCullum (captain), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Daniel Vettori, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Trent Boult

Afghanistan - Mohammad Nabi, Javed Ahmadi, Usman Ghani, Nawroz Mangal, Asghar Stanikzai, Samiullah Shenwari, Afsar Zazai, Najibullah Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran.





(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)


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Source: Reuters


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