Afghanistan coach Jonathon Trott felt their batting line up lacked intelligence to absorb the pressure in a major tournament like World Cup.
According to him, when Bangladesh spinners maintained a tight line and length, the batters allowed them to bowl well by being strangled.
Afghanistan even couldn’t play full 50 overs as they were bowled out for 156 in 37.2 overs, which Bangladesh chased down with 62 balls to spare.
“I think they just played… We didn’t play the spinners at all well. And they played our spinners OK. I think they played pretty well,” Trott said after the match.
“It just was stark contrast to the way that we played the Bangladesh spinners – no disrespect to them at all. They bowled well, they’re fine bowlers, but we allowed them to bowl well,” he said.
Batters failure also put pressure on the Afghan spinners, who didn’t get any chance to use the turn and bounce the pitch offered late at Bangladesh innings, Trott claimed.
“I thought it did turn a little bit as well. I thought it sort of held up. I thought if the game had gone another 20 overs or 12 overs in our innings and then a little bit longer, I think the ball would have spun towards the end of the innings as well,” Trott, the former England batter opined.
“I think when you lose nine wickets for 73 there is a problem, yeah. So, the decision making, the stability, certainly when you get bowled out in 38 overs, that was the problem today,” he added.
He urged the middle order batters to take more responsibility as they found it tough to do well in the global tournaments.
He said, “I would say middle order needs to take more responsibility. But also, if there’s momentum in the game, try and wrestle the momentum back. It just seemed to go all Bangladesh’s way and no one stayed there and sort of tried to absorb some pressure. It seemed to be sort of one-dimensional a little bit so that’s something we’ve got to work on.”
“I thought we obviously started well, close to 100 in 20 overs. And then we just had soft dismissals really. Guys giving their wicket away, going against what we had as a game plan with regards to that. We played, I thought, pretty well leading into the game against Sri Lanka. I think we got close to where we want to be playing in the warm-up games. But it’s about dealing with the pressure of World Cup cricket and playing in major tournaments. So that’s where we fell short today,” Trott said.
