The pace combination of Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq led Afghanistan’s seven-wicket rout of Papua New Guinea here as the strife-torn country stormed into the T20 World Cup’s Super Eight stage for the first time, knocking out group favourites New Zealand in the process.
Gulbadin Naib scored an unbeaten 49 as Afghanistan gunned down the target of 96 in 15.1 overs overcoming early jitters. Put in to bat, PNG were bundled out for 95 with Farooqi and Naveen ripping through the line-up.
The Afghans will face title favourites India in their first Super Eight clash on June 20 in Barbados.
The result also meant that New Zealand, the 2021 finalists, were knocked out of the ICC showpiece. The Kiwis find themselves at the bottom of the table with two defeats from as many matches.
Tournament co-hosts West Indies have already entered the Super Eight from Group C with six points, which is the same as the Afghans.
New Zealand will face Uganda and PNG in their remaining two matches, which will now be of mere academic interest.
On Thursday, Farooqi took two wickets in two balls in his second over and finished with 3/16 from his four overs after Rashid Khan opted to bowl.
He now has tournament figures of 11.2-0-42-12 to lead the bowling chart.
His pace bowling partner Naveen provided the perfect assistance, returning with a miserly 2.5-0-4-2 as PNG were bowled out in 19.5 overs. Semo Kamea was run out in the penultimate delivery of their innings.
It would have been much worse for PNG had Afghanistan not leaked 25 runs in extras, and 13 of them wides.