On October 18, the 16th match of the ODI Cricket World Cup will take place at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

New Zealand will be facing Afghanistan in this exciting match. New Zealand has been in control of the proceedings thus far, having won both of their matches and currently holding the second position.

On the other hand, Afghanistan has won one game out of their three matches and is currently ranked sixth.

In their last match, New Zealand faced off against Bangladesh. New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl. Bangladesh had a disappointing start as they lost their first wicket on the very first ball.

After the top order failed to deliver, it was the skilled pair of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan who stepped up and scored crucial runs. They managed to score only 245 runs and post it on the board.

New Zealand also lost an early wicket, but they quickly recovered with two outstanding partnerships. These partnerships allowed them to comfortably secure victory by eight wickets.

In their last match, Afghanistan faced off against England. England won the toss and chose to field. Afghanistan had a fantastic start, with Gurbaz dominating the proceedings with his impressive knock of 80.

They struggled during the middle overs, but managed to recover and performed strongly towards the end, resulting in a final score of 284 runs.

England had a disappointing start, losing their first wicket early and subsequently experiencing a series of continuous wicket losses. Their inability to form partnerships resulted in a loss of the match by a margin of 69 runs.

#StatChat | On his way to 200 ODI wickets, Trent Boult has been most successful against Australia with 39 wickets from the 15 ODIs he's played against our near neighbours so far in his career. His best return in those matches is 6-33 at Seddon Park in 2017. #NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/kcubWQVOQL

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) October 16, 2023

PROBABLE PLAYING XI

New Zealand

Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, DJ Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, MS Chapman, Tom Latham (C), Glenn Phillips, LH Ferguson, MJ Henry, Trent Boult, Ish Sodhi

BENCH : WA Young, Tim Southee, James Neesham, Kane Williamson, Tom Blundell

Afghanistan

Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Ibrahim Zadran, R Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, IA Khil (wk), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq

BENCH : Riaz Hussan, Najibullah Zadran, Abdul Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib, Farid Malik, Sharafuddin Ashraf