Three wins in the group stage saw Afghanistan reach the Super 8s at the T20 World Cup and they maintained their impressive form over the last 12 months, but they lost against the West Indies. Bowlers failed to do well in the game. A costly bowling powerplay for Afghanistan saw the West Indies score 92 runs and put 218 on the board. However, Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott has shared his views on this.

“I think we could have bowled a little bit better at times, obviously the powerplay wasn’t ideal – but I think we bowled well after that. The next ten-odd overs went for something like 60 odd, so it showed that if we did bowl well, we could restrict them,” Trott said. “If we don’t start an over well, being able to get out of an over and try and stop that. Today we had two overs in total, went for 60 runs, and that swung the game massively.”

Nicholas Pooran’s stunning 98 in just 53 balls saw him surpass Chris Gayle in terms of most T20I sixes for West Indies as well, with Pooran’s 128 sixes to Gayle’s 124. He took a particular liking to Azmatullah Omarzai, who conceded the joint-most runs (36) in an over in T20Is as well. That combined with a 24-run over from Rashid Khan cost Afghanistan’s chances too.

“I think when somebody gets 98 of 53 balls, I think it’s always going to be quite a factor,” summed up Trott. “I think we saw the West Indies players use the wind factor really well. I mean, the wind was to the bigger, much bigger boundary and they were still able to clear it well. I think maybe we could have bowled a little bit better and get them hitting into, hitting the other way.”

“Chasing a target like 220 is always going to be tricky so we needed things to go away in the PowerPlay and we didn’t have a good PowerPlay either. When you have a swing of 92 in the PowerPlay [which] they were at and I think we were 45 – that’s a huge swing,” Trott concluded.

Afghanistan will begin their Super 8 fixtures against India on June 20 at the Kensington Oval in Barbados as well.