New Zealand have overcome a controversial mankad to narrowly beat Afghanistan by one wicket at the Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
New Zealand only had to chase a measly 92 runs to win as the New Zealand bowlers restricted Afghanistan to 91 all out from just 21.3 overs.
New Zealand clawed their way to 90/8 when controversy arose as Ewald Schreuder was ‘mankaded’ by Naseer Khan when New Zealand only needed two runs to win.
Khan ran in to bowl the first ball of his fifth over but stopped mid-way through his bowling action to turn around and take the bails off to run out Schreuder.
Mankads are often criticised as not being in the spirit of the game and being a cheap way to get out the non-striking batsman.
Despite the mankad controversy, Matt Rowe hit the winning runs off the next ball to get New Zealand over the line.
"Well I guess cricket's cricket and what's going to happen is going to happen,” Rowe said when asked about the mankad incident.
“It is in the rules and that’s why I did it,” Khan said in response to his run out of Schreuder.
Earlier in the match, Rowe played a key role in dismissing the Afghanistan batsmen, taking 5-21 in his eight-over spell.
However, Afghanistan didn’t make it easy for the Kiwis with three of the top order batsmen getting out for ducks as a result of an impressive bowling display from Allah Mohammad, who took 3-29.
New Zealand will play Pakistan in their final group game on Saturday with a win securing them top spot in Group D.
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