Photo Credit: Brisbane Heat
Afghanistan will not get complacent despite their huge win over Scotland in Group 2 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, insists Naveen ul-Haq.
The seamer was the only other bowler to take a wicket with Mujeeb Ur Rahman (5-20) and Rashid Khan (4-9) reducing Scotland to 60 all out.
Their dominance with the ball came after a clinical batting performance which saw Afghanistan make 190 for four.
Naveen said: “Every tournament, the first game is very important so it was a good team effort and we needed that win to start our journey into the tournament.
“It was a good one. Our players were ready for it. We were well prepared. Lots of our players were playing and participating in different leagues, so all the boys were ready for this tournament and this match.
“We had this plan of the left-right combination, so for both the batsmen, it was easy to target the shorter side and we had this plan and we executed it well.
“We needed that win to start our tournament so we won’t be complacent about this win, we move forward.
“We will enjoy the victory, it was a great game, but looking forward into the tournament we have still four games.”
For Scotland, it was an evening to forget as they recorded their lowest total in a T20I and head coach Shane Burger believes it will be a difficult defeat to get over.
“It’s obviously a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “We’ve had really good momentum recently, so you get into a rhythm of what that feels like and that’ll be really tough to swallow.
“But this competition doesn’t allow you to think about it for too long. We’ve got another game in a couple of days’ time, we have to just regroup, reset and go again against Namibia.
“The game is all about small margins, fine margins at times, and we didn’t quite get momentum on our side this evening.
“They just showed that with a few of their world-class players, they were able just to pile on the pressure at the right times and in T20 cricket that can happen. It can go against you.”
Scotland saw the dangerous Calum MacLeod and Richie Berrington both dismissed lbw and reviews showed the wickets being decided by umpire’s call, with fine margins consigning Scotland to their fate.
“Sometimes those things can go your way and I’m not here to speak about decisions because I feel sometimes we make our own luck,” Burger added.
“But when those small and fine decisions go against you, it’s really hard to get back into the game and with the quality that they have, they just keep piling on the pressure.
“They keep coming at you and we’ll just learn a lot from that and we’ve got to be able to just manage those situations a little bit better.”
Name of Author: ICC
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global governing body for cricket, founded in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference. Renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, it became the ICC in 1987. Headquartered in Dubai, UAE, the ICC has 108 member nations.
