Afghanistan’s sloppy play versus New Zealand in Chennai results in missed opportunities.

In the ODI World Cup 2023, New Zealand extended their winning streak to four games by crushing Afghanistan by 149 runs on Wednesday, October 18.

The Kiwis defeated the Afghanistan team with a score of 288/6. Afghanistan came into the match with some confidence after defeating the defending champions, England, in their previous match. However, Hashmatullah Shahidi‘s team’s fielding performance was quite poor as they missed one stumping opportunity and lost up to five catches. After his team’s lackluster fielding effort, Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott voiced his dissatisfaction and thought that things might have turned out differently if the opportunities had been taken.

“Well, to be honest, we dropped a catch in the second over and a few catches overall. Will Young and I both dropped [Rachin] Ravindra on a nought. As a result, the opposition gains a little amount of impetus. I believe we would have been in a much better position if we had taken those as well as [Devon] Conway’s wicket. Not only like they were, but at one point I believe they were approximately 116 [110] for four. So, had we held on to those catches, we would have been in an even better position. But it was not to be, and regrettably, we must leave tonight with those, Trott remarked at the news conference following the game.

Very disappointed because you have to accept those catches at this level:  Hashmatullah Shahidi

Hashmatullah, the captain of Afghanistan, similarly bemoaned the missed opportunities and believed that they decreased his team’s chances of defeating the Black Caps.

Very disappointed since you have to accept those types of catches at this level. The [dropped] receptions ultimately damaged us. The squad was performing well, but our fielding caused us to lose a little bit of ground, Shahidi said to Star Sports at the post-game awards ceremony.

On Monday, October 23 in Chennai, the “Blue Tigers” will play Pakistan in their upcoming World Cup match. Trott and Shahidi would like to see a significant improvement in Afghanistan’s fielding standards in that important match.