Afghanistan’s magnificent adventure inside the 2024 T20 World Cup ended with a disappointing nine-wicket loss to South Africa in the semi-very last held in Trinidad. Afghanistan, led by Rashid Khan, chose to bat first but handiest controlled to attain 56 runs, their lowest ever in T20 internationals and the lowest in T20 World Cup history.
After the defeat on Wednesday, head coach Jonathan Trott expressed his frustration with the International Cricket Council (ICC), stating that the fit turned into no longer a “fair contest.”
In a press conference following the sport, Trott stated that even as he wanted to keep away from any hassle, he felt it became essential to factor out the terrible quality of the pitch organized for such a crucial World Cup semi-very last suit.
“I don’t want to get myself into trouble. But I also don’t want to sound a bit like ‘sour grapes’ but that’s not the pitch that you want to have a semi-final of a World Cup on. Plain and simple. It should be a fair contest. I’m not saying it should be completely flat with no spin and seam movement, you shouldn’t have batters worrying about moving forward and having the ball fly over their head.
You should be confident in getting through the line or use their skills. And T20 is all about attacking and scoring runs and taking wickets. Not looking to survive,” said Trott during the press conference.
Trott hoped the pitch would be fair to both Afghanistan and South Africa, but he feels his team suffered more because the pitch favored the opponents.
“If the opposition bowled well and gets you into a position after bowling well and through skill, then it’s fine to them. Then it’s about adapting. If we had bowled the way South Africa had, you could have seen a different second half,” he said during the chat with media personnel.
Trott mentioned the busy schedule Afghanistan faced but did not blame it for their disappointing loss in the semi-final.
“We only got back to hotel at three o’clock and then we had to leave at eight o’clock — five hours later so we didn’t get much sleep so the guys obviously were very tired and a lot to process really emotionally physically. So all new territory for the guys,” Trott said.
Having said that, Trott conceded they were outplayed by a strong South African unit.
“But we knew the schedule, so that’s not an excuse as such. When you go in World Cups or tournaments, you can’t have everything your own way, and you’ve got to fight and play against the odds which you’ve done at times and very proud of that. But it’s no, it’s not the reason why we didn’t win today. South Africa bowled well, used the conditions, and showed our boys what it’s capable of. But it just didn’t go our way tonight.”
The 43-year-old expressed hope that the semi-final defeat would be a valuable learning experience for the team, which has shown significant improvement over the past five years.
“…we’ve obviously got one better than the previous (ODI) World Cup in November and it’s just about taking it step by step and hopefully we learn from today, the batters certainly. What it takes to play international cricket and play against a bowling side like South Africa on a pitch that’s perhaps not conducive to high scoring runs and finding ways of winning games…we just couldn’t find a way today.”
Afghanistan’s top run-scorers in the tournament, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) and Ibrahim Zadran (2), both failed as openers, increasing pressure on a middle order that had struggled throughout the competition. “Nobody else has got runs. We need to find a reason for that,” Trott said.
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