Afghanistan players celebrate after dismissing Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal during the Cricket World Cup match in Canberra. (AFP)

AFP/Canberra

Afghanistan coach Andy Moles lamented his team didn’t give a true reflection of the way they play their cricket after a comprehensive first up World Cup defeat to Bangladesh yesterday. The World Cup newcomers lost by 105 runs after being dismissed for 162 in pursuit of a 268-run target at Canberra’s Manuka Oval. Their hopes of chasing down the target were torpedoed by a clatter of three wickets in the opening three overs exposing their middle order batsmen to the new ball.
It was an opening setback that Afghanistan never overcame against the Test-playing nation, who they beat at last year’s Asia Cup one-day tournament. “We genuinely thought this was a game we could win tonight,” Moles told reporters.
“I still believe that if we had applied ourselves better then we would have given a better account. The Bangladesh boys have got far more experience than us. We haven’t disgraced ourselves, but that wasn’t a true reflection on the work we do in preparation and the way we play our cricket.”
Moles, who can lay claim to being the holder of possibly the sport’s most dangerous job—coach of war-weary Afghanistan—said his team had to take the loss on the chin and prepare for their next tough assignment against 1996 champions Sri Lanka in Dunedin on Sunday.
“One of the issues we’ve had is that we do well with bat and ball for 35 overs and it’s that extra 15 overs where we need to work on our concentration levels, our discipline, our execution and it’s something we have spoken about regularly,” Moles said.
“In the first 30 overs today we were very good, bowled well with discipline and we had control and we fielded well. Then one or two little bits of sloppiness crept into our fielding and our bowling wasn’t quite as focused as it had been and then it got a little bit worse. We didn’t hit the heights that we expected of ourselves.”
Moles said Afghanistan had moved past the excitement and thrill of playing at their first World Cup tournament. “I think we’ve moved past the excitement part. We’re here to compete in the games of cricket,” he said.
“We have the opportunities coming up to play against other countries in ODIs. We’re in the shop window here and in the first 30 overs we gave a good account of ourselves. Tonight we got lost and we just didn’t get out of the blocks with our batting.
“Our feet weren’t moving, we were in a fog. We just didn’t get going, didn’t get any freebies up front and before we knew we were three down and then we were treading water.”