Chennai, Oct 18: Dropping as many as five catches at crucial junctures and failing to read the nature of the track became their undoing, Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said after his team’s humiliating 149-run defeat at the hands of New Zealand in a World Cup game here on Wednesday.
Batting first, New Zealand scored 288/6 in 50 overs and Glenn Phillips (71) and Tom Latham (68) got reprieves at opportune moments to conjure a match-winning 144-run stand. In reply, Afghanistan were bowled out for 139 in 34.4 overs.
“Very disappointed because at this level you have to take those kind of catches. End of the day those catches hurt us as otherwise the team was doing well but the fielding let us a little bit down,” Shahidi was straight-forward in his assessment.
Afghanistan conceded 78 runs in the last six overs and it was the turning point on a track that offered a lot of turn.“Last six overs, a lot of runs were scored by New Zealand. Before that, we dropped two catches before the 40th over and the set batters (Latham and Phillips) were there. That’s why we couldn’t stop them as everything went their way,” Shahidi said.
If five catches hurt them badly, opting to field after winning the toss was also a huge factor.“The toss I can say…We couldn’t judge the pitch properly. I think in the first innings, the ball was spinning (turning) and was a bit slow.” (PTI)
