Afghanistan’s head coach, Jonathan Trott, made a remarkable statement following his team’s appalling two-run loss to Sri Lanka on Tuesday (September 5) in Lahore. Afghanistan had a score of 289/8 at the end of the 37th over and needed to reach 292 in 37.1 overs to win the game.
As a result, they only required three runs off of one delivery to guarantee their place in the Super 4. Suddenly, Rashid Khan, who had been on fire up until that point, was on the other side of the non-striker. He didn’t know, and neither did the other batters, that if Afghanistan reached 297, they would need 38.1 runs to do the job. They could have reached 293 after 37.2 overs, 294 after 37.3 overs, 295 after 37.5 overs, 296 after 38 overs, or 297 after 38.1 overs to defeat Sri Lanka on NRR.
The fact that Mujeeb-ur-Rahman and Fazalhaq Farooqui, who arrived after him, were unaware of this revealed that Afghanistan still had a number of possible outcomes. Trott acknowledged that because they were unaware of these possibilities, no messages were sent to the hitters. Mujeeb and Farooqui getting themselves out ultimately caused Afghanistan to suffer a bitter defeat; the latter even made an attempt to bat out the 38th over while knowing his team’s chances were hopeless.
According to him, “We were never informed of those calculations. “There was only one instruction provided to us: we had to win in 37.1 overs. We were not informed of the overs in which we might obtain 295 or 297. We were never told that after 38.1 overs, we could still win.
Mohammad Nabi’s brilliant 32-ball 65 gave Afghanistan the early advantage in the chase. Rahmat Shah and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi also made tremendous contributions. The equation read 16 off 10 when Najibullah Zadran appeared, completed his work, and left. Before the final letdown, the southpaw and Rashid had Afghanistan on the right track. Trott was unable to identify a single cause for Afghanistan’s demise.
“I don’t think there was just one reason why we lost the game,” Trott said. There were times in today’s match as well as the one against Bangladesh when we could have played the game more shrewdly. Because we committed several catastrophic errors in numerous locations, we had to pay the price. If only we could have bowled them out for a little less money. But that was not to be.