Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi "disappointed" on Afghanistan's dozy fielding against New Zealand
Oct 18, 2023
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 18 : Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi was "disappointed" with Afghanistan's fielding performance following their 149-run defeat against New Zealand on Wednesday.
Afghanistan dropped four catches in the first innings, and these dropped chances went on to cost them dearly before the night ended.
Will Young who struck 54 was dropped once in the second over of the game at the wide slip by Rahmat Shah.
Tom Latham was dropped twice leaving Rashid Khan livid, Mujeeb Ur Rahaman made a mess of it in the 41st over. Latham survived twice in the 43rd over and it was Rashid who once again created the chance of forcing a breakthrough.
Moments later, Rashid found himself on the other end as he dropped set batter Glenn Phillips's catch in Naveen-ul-Haq's over.
After the game, Shahidi didn't hold back while talking about Afghanistan's performance on the field and said, "Yeah, very disappointed because at this level you have to take those kind of catches. End of the day those catches hurt us otherwise the team was doing well but the fielding made us feel a little bit down. Last six overs, a lot of runs (were made) by New Zealand, before that we dropped two catches before the 40th over and the set batters were there, that's why we couldn't stop them but everything went their way. Yeah, the toss I can say. We couldn't judge properly the pitch. I think in the first innings, it was spinning and was a bit slow, we have bowled well but the fielding was not good."
He went on to assert that Afghanistan will look to bounce back and come back stronger for their next clash against Pakistan on Monday.
"Tonight's game will hurt us but we still have more games to come, next match is against Pakistan. We will go back and discuss where we can improve and will try to come back stronger," Shahidi added.
Coming to the match, Tom Latham-led New Zealand continued to enjoy their success in the ODI World Cup 2023 as they beat Afghanistan by 149 runs at MA Chidambaram Stadium.
The Kiwis posted a total of 288/6 on the board, they restricted Afghanistan to 139 to clinch a 149-run victory.
