Desk Report:
Afghanistan’s Asia Cup mission has ended after losing to Sri Lanka. It is difficult for the team’s head coach Jonathan Trott to accept this. After losing to the Sri Lankans and exiting the tournament, he is giving credit to Bangladesh.
Afghanistan had to win against Sri Lanka to go to the Super Four. In such an equation, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabira lost by 6 wickets. Batting first, the Afghans scored 169 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. In response, the Sri Lankans reached the victory mark with 8 balls in hand. After three matches in the group stage, they collected 6 points. Bangladesh is the Sri Lankan partner in the Super Four from this group with 4 points. On the other hand, the eliminated Afghanistan collected 2 points. They only defeated Hong Kong in the group stage. Then Afghanistan lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in two consecutive matches.
Trott said in a press conference after losing to Sri Lanka, ‘Our bowling was not good. Especially in the powerplay. We made mistakes in many common places. If you want to win these matches, you can never make these mistakes. I want to give full credit to the Bangladesh team. They will play in the Super Four. I also give credit to Sri Lanka.’
Explaining the defeat, Trott said, ‘It’s very disappointing. It’s difficult for us to digest something like this. We were in a good position with the capital we had. Nabi has taken us to a good position. But we must not forget that the Sri Lankan batters did a lot well. Apart from that, our bowling and fielding were not good. We came to the Asia Cup with high hopes. I am very disappointed.’
Despite being disappointed, the former English cricketer also gave a message of turning around, ‘We have to work well. There is a T20 World Cup ahead. We, the coach and the players, will discuss how to do better. So that the same mistakes are not repeated.’
