Image Credit- AP
A wall-mounted TV showed one of Afghanistan’s numerous
drops in their World Cup game against New Zealand just as head coach Jonathan
Trott of Afghanistan entered the press conference room in Chepauk. Trott then
bemoaned Afghanistan’s shoddy catching and pleaded with them to do better.
“Well, we dropped a catch in the second over and
we dropped a few catches, really,” Trott said. We dropped [Rachin]
Ravindra on nought, we dropped [Will] Young on nought. So that sort of gives a
little bit of momentum to the opposition.
“I think if we had taken those and with the
wicket of [Devon] Conway, we would have been in a much better position as well.
Not only like they were, I think they were about 116 [110] for four at one
stage. “So, we would have been in an even better position had we held on
to those catches. But it wasn’t to be and unfortunately, we have to go home
regretting those tonight.”
Hashmatullah Shahidi, the captain of Afghanistan, also
expressed his displeasure with his team’s fielding performance in Dharamsala,
when New Zealand crushed Afghanistan by 149 runs. Afghanistan shelled five
catches in addition to missing a stumping opportunity to free New Zealand on a
two-paced Chepauk surface. Two of the drops were the work of Shahidi alone.
“Very disappointed because in this level you have
to take those kinds of catches. End of the day, the [dropped] catches hurt
us,” Shahidi told Star Sports at the post-match presentation. “The
team was doing good, but the fielding, because of that we fell a little bit
down.”
Afghanistan had created a stir when they toppled
defending champions England in Delhi, but then they suffered a drubbing against
New Zealand in Chennai. Trott wants his players to tighten their fundamental
skills and deal with pressure better.
“Well, I certainly feel that [consistency] is
what’s needed,” Trott said. “I think that’s the only thing really
stopping this team is doing the basics really well and that’s consistency. So,
if we had taken our catches and put New Zealand under pressure like we should
have, I think you’d be looking at, not saying it would have changed the results
as a fact, but you would have been looking at a very different performance.