Three wins in the group stage saw Afghanistan qualify for the Super 8s at the T20 World Cup and continue their impressive form over the last 12 months, but their first real blip of the tournament came against the West Indies. The tournament co-hosts beat Rashid Khan’s side by a massive 104 runs in St Lucia, and it was a harsh reminder of the tough competition that awaits Afghanistan in the next round.
A costly bowling powerplay for Afghanistan saw the West Indies race away to 92 runs and put 218 on the board. A good chunk of that came via two expensive overs that together went for 60 runs and offset some tight bowling otherwise according to Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott.
“I think we could have bowled a little bit better at times, obviously the powerplay wasn’t ideal – but I think we bowled well after that. The next ten-odd overs went for something like 60 odd, so it showed that if we did bowl well, we could restrict them,” Trott said.
So where can Afghanistan improve? “If we don’t start an over well, being able to get out of an over and try and stop that,” Trott reckoned. “Today we had two overs in total, went for 60 runs, and that swung the game massively.”
Nicholas Pooran’s blitzkrieg of 98 in just 53 balls saw him surpass Chris Gayle in terms of most T20I sixes for West Indies, with Pooran’s tally now 128 sixes to Gayle’s 124. The swashbuckling left-hander took a particular liking to Azmatullah Omarzai, who conceded the joint-most runs (36) in an over in T20Is. That combined with a 24-run over from Rashid Khan really hurt Afghanistan’s chances.
Pooran hit 8 sixes on the night and got key support from Johnson Charles at his home ground and skipper Rovman Powell. “I think when somebody gets 98 of 53 balls, I think it’s always going to be quite a factor,” summed up Trott.
West Indies phased their innings perfectly and targeted the longer boundaries by hitting into the wind. Trott praised the intent and tactic, and added that his bowlers found it difficult to get the batters hitting the ball against the wind.
“I think we saw the West Indies players use the wind factor really well. I mean, the wind was to the bigger, much bigger boundary and they were still able to clear it well. I think maybe we could have bowled a little bit better and get them hitting into, hitting the other way.”
The batting performance from Afghanistan was also not upto the mark, with in-form opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz dismissed for a duck. That set the tone for a difficult run chase. Scoring only 45 in the PowerPlay and subsequently crumbling to 57-7 in the middle overs, it was a resounding defeat for the Afghans in the end.
“Chasing a target like 220 is always going to be tricky so we needed things to go away in the PowerPlay and we didn’t have a good PowerPlay either. When you have a swing of 92 in the PowerPlay [which] they were at and I think we were 45 – that’s a huge swing,” Trott said.
Next up, Afghanistan begin their Super 8 fixtures against India on June 20 at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.
