Afghanistan Team Discussion

[MattW]

Discussion thread for the Afghanistan Cricket Team

 

[SpitfiresKent]

"I stay in a hotel which has got heavy security. I go backwards and forwards to the ground, then back to the hotel.I don't go out at night, I don't go out on to the streets. The only time I leave the hotel is to go to work. When I come back, I close the door and have room service in the evenings."

BBC Sport - Afghanistan coach Andy Moles on the 'most dangerous job in sport'

^An interesting interview with Afghanistan coach Andy Moles.

 

[MattW]

It's a shame that such a brilliant performance just ends up as another loss in the statistics.

 

[Biggs]

Scorecard doesn't reflect what an awesome comeback that was against Sri Lanka, both with bat and ball. They were a good bit of luck away from putting a red cross next to Sri Lanka's name on the scorecard... If that shot hadn't looped up over the keeper I reckon Afghanistan would've had that in the bag.

Favorite team in the tournament at the moment outside of NZ, they're deserving of better results for sure and the passion they play with should be a lesson to some of the bigger teams out there.

Little bit worried about their NZ game now, might put my Afghanistan replica shirt in my bag on the day...

 

[blockerdave]

their bowling attack will cause england problems - pity that their batting is nowhere near good enough.

give them some of ireland's batters or give ireland some of their seamers and you'd have a side that would trouble anyone.

 

[MattW]

I'd imagine that it's easier to improve your batting with practice than to gain 10-20km/h while bowling. So as with everything, the associates will get better if they get more matches against quality opposition, which they will get if they get better through playing more matches against quality opposition, which th.....

I say imagine because I bring exactly no experience to improving at batting.

 

[Ohm]

Undoubtedly, this world cup is owned by few of the non-full member nations due the quality matches they are producing. Well done Afghanistan on their world cup's first victory.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Afghanistan played well and deserved to win that game, although Scotland did very well to run them as close as we did. It would be nice to have at least one game where our top order didn't collapse in a heap!

 

[Biggs]

Yeah, this was always going to be brutal... but... Nobody expected David Warner to start beating up kids with a cricket ball in the crowd.

[HASHTAG]#prayforafghanistan[/HASHTAG]

They deserve better than this, bowlers have just been over-awed I think.

 

[MattW]

They deserve better than this, bowlers have just been over-awed I think.

Which is the basic problem of just simply not playing against them.

Ireland's last match against South Africa was in the last World Cup in 2011, Afghanistan's last match against Australia was in 2012 in the UAE - and it wasn't even a 'one day' game.

A really good article I read yesterday makes this point better than I can Cricket365 - - particularly this: "Better sides beat weaker ones. That is sport. Realistically, there are four teams that can win this World Cup, the other 10 are there to make up the numbers." - the gap in performances is between the very top teams and the rest is larger than the gap between the lower teams with Test status and the top associates.

 

[Biggs]

I had a conversation with someone today that the crux of it was NZ (Australia) don't actually want to go out there and thrash the last living heartbeat of these guys, but they really have to because momentum. If you go easy or don't push and set targets and challenges, you end up weakening your resolve for when you play better opponents. Sad thing is Aghanistan won't be able to take anything out of this match, bowling-wise... some of their deliveries have actually been really good but when you've got players just throwing the bat at everything, as they should (and can!) you're on a hiding to nothing. I mean Maxwell is standing out there playing ridiculous shots, not connecting. I doubt he's getting anything out of it other than an extended nets practice.

I'd argue that 10 Team comment, West Indies are kinda making a late dash at putting together some wins and arguably, given the right circumstances, I can see Ireland stealing a semi-final spot from someone... but the general sentiment is still correct. These guys need more regular appearances so they're not staring googly-eyed at David Warner and bowling waist-high full-tosses at him. Their bowlers are better than that, they're just situationally unprepared to adapt.

 

[MattW]

I'd argue that 10 Team comment, West Indies are kinda making a late dash at putting together some wins and arguably, given the right circumstances, I can see Ireland stealing a semi-final spot from someone... but the general sentiment is still correct.

Sure - there's good performances there will be plenty of teams that do well, but I can't see any team outside that top four (Aus, NZ, SA, India) making the final, let alone winning it. It's telling that in 10 World Cups there have only been 5 winners, NZ or South Africa might make that 6 in this WC - but it's probably going to be Australia for the 4th time out of the last 5.

That's not in the slightest an argument for a smaller tournament - just the point that if having a genuine chance to win was the only criteria, England wouldn't get to go to their own event in 2019. There's no reason their constant failure is acceptable while at the same time the ICC wants to cut teams out of the event.

Besides no one wants to miss this:

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Really impressed with Afghanistan's pace trio of Shapoor, Dawlat and Hassan. Give them a few more years and they'll be fine bowlers, especially Hamid Hassan, he looks a real talent.

Shame about their batting though.

 

[Biggs]

Allow me to be the first to invite Afghanistan back to NZ any time to play...



Great to watch them again live and tonnes of support from NZ and Afghani ex-pats alike.



Will be sad to see these guys finish their run down under and sincerely hope to see them again much sooner.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Who's unsticking these threads?