After a heavy, demoralizing and at times embarrassing defeat at the hands of South Africa, Afghanistan’s dream trip, which started in the World Cricket League Division Five, has come to a close. After restricting the Proteas to a modest total of 139, Afghanistan’s top-order folded to give South Africa a 59-run victory.
Despite the collapse, let’s make one thing clear: there is no shame in getting destroyed by this pace attack. All the international teams, all the top players, including Sachin Tendulkar, have been made to look clueless against the fiery pace attack of the South Africa. They may not have played and missed as often as the Afghans, but there would have been times where they were made to look like novices.
One should not forget even, this is the first time they have come up against such extreme pace. The fastest they would have faced in associate cricket was Boyd Rankin, the Irish seamer, bowling at around 83 mph. Like most things in life, you have trouble doing something at first. Whether it’s practical things like driving a car or learning how to swim, you are usually pathetic at first. The problem for the Afghanistan players, there isn’t 10,000 people watching in the ground or millions making a judgment on TV when you are doing these things.
I’m going to be honest, though, this was an absolute nightmare for Afghanistan. Being 14 for 6 is not want the Afghan players and fans would have dreamed of when they qualified on that incredible day in February.
But the reality has struck hard: they can’t bat against pace and bounce. Their technique, which is largely to lunge on to the front foot, was brutally exposed by the bounce of Morne Morkel and the pace of Dale Steyn.
Taking this in to account, it would have been easier for Afghanistan if they had lost to Ireland in the final of the World T20 qualifiers. A lose in this match would’ve resulted in the Afghans playing their two matches on the slow and spin-friendly surfaces of Guyana. There would not have been the need to face Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel either.
For all the gloom and doom at the moment, there are some genunie reasons to feel very proud of these courageous cricketers. The bowling was super: keeping South Africa down to 140 is impressive stuff. I certainly say their bowling is an all-round better package than Zimbabwe and even Bangladesh.
In Hamid Hassan, they have a little gem, which only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh can dream of having. A 90 mph bowler, who can bowl the yorker with uncanny accuracy, is the type of bowler associate cricket has never seen. Hamid Hassan is the player who has had his reputation enhanced the most, and maybe, just maybe, some good spirited IPL team will fancy giving Hassan a chance to play in the IPL.
Also, the leg-spinner, Samiullah Shenwari, and the paceman, Shapoor Zardan, displayed encouraging signs for the future. Shenwari’s consistency of line and length was good, and he managed to bowl a couple of beauties: drifting the ball in and then sharply spinning the ball away, he made Jacques Kallis nod his head in approval, which is surely a triumph for any bowler.
Unlike Shenwari, consistency is a problem for Zardan. Good balls, like the ball that gave Graeme Smith flashbacks to playing at the Wanderers, are often followed by a pressure releasing delivery. Nevertheless, he’s shown enough to suggest that there is more to come from him in the future.
Along with their bowling, their fielding (only one outfield drop in the two matches) , and their running was better than most expected.
The batting against spin was another notable plus point for the Afghans. They only lost one wicket in 14 overs of spin, while scoring 76 runs. Again, non-Test teams, even Asian ones, are not renowned for playing spin well. All in all, Afghanistan was brilliant, apart from when they faced the faster bowlers.
For all the reasons stated above, the Afghanistan fans, who may be depressed at the result, should look forward to the future. Remember, this particular chapter may have come to an end, but the story is just starting for Afghanistan Cricket.
Great post STM. I agree that Afghanistan looked a bit clueless against the pace and bounce of Steyn and Morkel. But anybody would have faced problem with a bowler of the caliber of Dale Steyn. From the first look of the Afghanistan cricket team they look quite composed and will go a long way in international cricket. I liked their bowlers especially Hamid and Shenwari. In order to improve they need to play test playing nations and learn from them. At this time, the top teams might not be very interested to play them to be frank. I would want Afghanistan to start by playing the likes of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, English county sides and top domestic sides of countries like Australia, India and South Africa. If they play the county teams or the top domestic sides then they will learn a lot more than while playing with the likes of Nepal, UAE etc. Hope the ICC schedules matches against better nations for Afghanistan in the near future.
Thanks admin. I will do a post soon exploring where afghanistan go from here and who they could play against.
i would like Nowroz Mangal and Kabir Khan to have the recording of the match and look very closly and find out the weak points of every batsman and try for the recovery of the weak points of the team, i am not going to speak more about the team and players as in my point of view they did a good job they should be appreciated a very young team like Afghanistan who is playing in T20 cup is like a dream but they did a super job compare to the ficilities Afghanistan team has, i would like to say only thing to Nowroz Managl and Kabir khan that cricket is not only playing shots on every ball but staying in the weeket and waiting for the right ball for the shot but looking to the team in yesterday match even by 8 down the players where trying for shots on a bouncy weeket it was a great chance to stay on the weeket and finshes the 20hours, but agian as i said all Afghans proud of the team and every single player and Inshallah there will be day that every media and TV channels will be talking about Afghanistan victory agianst the beat cricket teams like South Africa, india, Austriala, England and others,
ALLAH MU MALL SHA!
Thanks for your reply Ajmal. You are right, they did well in their first matches against the big teams, and they can certainly learn a lot from these matches. With more practice they will one day beat a big team.
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