Afghanistan’s head coach, Jonathan Trott, lamented his team’s wasted opportunities on the pitch after Australia advanced to the semifinals of the 2023 World Cup thanks to a Glenn Maxwell special in Mumbai.
After Afghanistan posted a solid 291 runs, they had Australia on the mat at 91/7. However, after Maxwell was given a life on 33 in the 22nd over, he threw caution to the wind and hit a furious 201*, leading Australia to an unforgettable comeback victory. For Trott, the team’s missed opportunities with a player like Maxwell would inevitably come back to haunt them.
“It’s a case of we got ourselves into position and should have capitalised, obviously dropped two chances, and gave a person like Maxwell a chance. He’s going to run with it and he almost played with a bit of freedom and almost freed him up a little bit and gave a bit of momentum back to them. I thought, it was a spectacular innings, a world-class innings. But, yeah, we certainly helped him along the way,” Trott told media after Afghanistan’s heartbreaking loss.
Afghanistan lost by three wickets, preventing them from moving up to fourth place in the rankings and strengthening their bid for a first-ever trip in the World Cup semi-finals. They are presently in a three-way tie for third place with Pakistan and New Zealand on eight points, separated by just their net run rates (NRRs). Trott believed that his youthful team would learn from their two points lost to Australia, when they were in a commanding position to win. Their last match was against a powerful South African side, and a spot in the knockout stages was at stake.
“I always think could we have done a few things slightly different, bowled certain areas, different bowlers here or there,” Trott said. “Obviously, there are certain things you would like to try differently now, but hindsight is a great thing. And so, it’s a good lesson for our players because, in this game, if you take your eye off the ball just a little bit and you think too far ahead, and you try and start thinking other things instead of just worrying about taking the next wicket, this game can bite you pretty quickly.
“Obviously it’s a disappointing loss, but it’s an experience for a young side, developing. We need to make sure that we learn from these sorts of things. And just how cut-throat cricket is at the highest level and how you need to be on your game, not for 70 overs, but for 100 overs.”
Trott said that Afghanistan would be suffering because they let a struggling batter to run away with the game, even if no one will be pointing fingers or playing the blame game. They didn’t even change their strategy to attempt to provoke a misfire. Maxwell, who was experiencing severe cramps, blasted everything in his hitting arc into the bleachers his route to a double century off just 128 balls, setting a new record for the quickest double century in ODIs and the best individual effort in a run chase.
There are no pointing fingers, there’s no blaming,” Trott said. “I said to the team, as a bowler, is there anything you would have perhaps now done differently with regards to, in practice, developing a different delivery, would you have perhaps bowled different balls? As long as we learn from it and see how we can get better.
“But it is difficult to get over the fact that one player’s got 200 and the rest of the team have got 80 probably. So that’s a difficult thing to understand and the boys are hurting, and you’ll certainly be wishing they could have it back.”
Trott said that while the shoulders dropped in the field as quickly as Maxwell’s knock progressed, there’s a lesson for his inexperienced in this to never take their foot off the pedal, not against a world-class player and a world-class opposition.
“You give any world-class player two lives; he’s going to hurt you. So for the players coming in and the players developing all around the game, it’s not just about bowling in the nets. It’s about practicing your fielding. Make sure your fielding is improving all the time. Because it’s ended up costing us a game today, an important game. So that’s a little thing everyone can learn from.
“When, unfortunately, the second catch went down, everyone just seemed to be waiting for Maxwell to get out. I didn’t see a lot of encouragement or people cheering up each other and encouraging each other. It seemed like the attitude was a little bit, well, hopefully we’ll still win. When you get an opportunity against a side like Australia, you’ve got to grab it. They’re not going to just give it to you. And you’ve got to take it. If you get a chance to take it, you’ve got to take it. And that’s the type of things we’ll learn from today and what we just spoke about in the dressing-room.”
Trott however remained positive that Afghanistan team will bounce back from this disappointment, ahead of their final round-robin game against South Africa in Ahmedabad, just like they did earlier in the tournament to win three on the trot after their defeats to hosts India and New Zealand.
“We lost the New Zealand game pretty heavily and came back and won the next game,” he said. “We lost the India game very heavily, came back and beat England – so yeah there is evidence of us coming back. No time to muck around, we’ve got to pick ourselves up and learn from the experience. And there’s some great learning points for the guys going forward. But yeah, it’s a bitter pill to swallow. It would really be nice just sitting here with 10 points. But hopefully that’s after the South Africa game.”
