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Start of Afghanistan cricket's remarkable chapter after their performances in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023

Major

Major

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The world now exists in a post chucking era, where the bowlers that chucked are no more allowed to play cricket. While this has balanced the game abit, but alot of countries have not been able to produce any spinners. Considering that the World Cup is in India, and what we have already seen in the warm up games, spinners will be the wicket taking options.

While teams are packing with spinners, not every team has got options in spin and have to rely on one good spinner while the rest being decent enough.

But for Afghanistan the story is different. Over the years, the Afghans have played a team with 3 spinners and 2 pacers. This strategy has not worked on SENA wickets, but in India, it will create havoc.

The Afghan spin attack starts off with Mujeeb Ur Rehman, who is a mystery spinner that can bowl with a new ball. Than comes Rashid Khan after the 15th over to bowl his fast googlies and leg spin. In between the sessions, Mohammad Nabi comes in and drifts in a couple that helps him get wickets. But the story doesnt end there. Chinaman Noor Ahmad is also in the squad and even Rehmat Shah can also bowl part time leg spin.

From spin bowling wise, Afghanistan has the best spin attack in its arsenal. Some would mention India, but India has one Kuldeep, while Afghanistan has 3 spinners that can actually spin the ball.

Afghanistan can reach the semi finals, and for that, they would need their batting to survive out there. If the batting clicks and Hashmat is able to provide leadership which has been lacking in the Afghan camp, we can see this team reach the semi finals.
 
Major said:
The world now exists in a post chucking era, where the bowlers that chucked are no more allowed to play cricket. While this has balanced the game abit, but alot of countries have not been able to produce any spinners. Considering that the World Cup is in India, and what we have already seen in the warm up games, spinners will be the wicket taking options.

While teams are packing with spinners, not every team has got options in spin and have to rely on one good spinner while the rest being decent enough.

But for Afghanistan the story is different. Over the years, the Afghans have played a team with 3 spinners and 2 pacers. This strategy has not worked on SENA wickets, but in India, it will create havoc.

The Afghan spin attack starts off with Mujeeb Ur Rehman, who is a mystery spinner that can bowl with a new ball. Than comes Rashid Khan after the 15th over to bowl his fast googlies and leg spin. In between the sessions, Mohammad Nabi comes in and drifts in a couple that helps him get wickets. But the story doesnt end there. Chinaman Noor Ahmad is also in the squad and even Rehmat Shah can also bowl part time leg spin.

From spin bowling wise, Afghanistan has the best spin attack in its arsenal. Some would mention India, but India has one Kuldeep, while Afghanistan has 3 spinners that can actually spin the ball.

Afghanistan can reach the semi finals, and for that, they would need their batting to survive out there. If the batting clicks and Hashmat is able to provide leadership which has been lacking in the Afghan camp, we can see this team reach the semi finals.
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What 3 other teams will join Afghanistan in the semis?
 
Hope they can create some real upsets. I can see a couple of SENA teams getting a humbling from them.
 
Cricket Warrior said:
i think they can get into the top 5 if they start this tournament with a win.
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Their batting is the main issue, it collapses like a house of cards.

If their spin attack gets them a target 200 and below, anything is possible. They got the Lankans today
 
Major said:
Their batting is the main issue, it collapses like a house of cards.

If their spin attack gets them a target 200 and below, anything is possible. They got the Lankans today
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Most of Afghanistan's victories are expected to come from their bowling performance particularly on spin friendly tracks.

BCCI has granted them major leverage in this regard.
 
Rana said:
I’m intrigued to know who else will reach the semis according to op
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I guess it's whoever the next best teams are in following the tuk-tuk formula because players like SKY are "overhyped" ofc.
 
Rana said:
I’m intrigued to know who else will reach the semis according to op
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Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Netherlands
Pakistan

The stage is set for the power hitters of the top teams to be put in their place by these four teams.

:razzaq
 
Afghanistan posted just 156 runs on the board against the Bengal tigers. Will the Afghan spin attack be able to defend this one? I guess not. Not enough score to defend to be honest.
 
Afghanistan’s ceiling is probably winning 2-3 matches this tournament.

I’m more curious to see how Netherlands plays across the rest of the tournament considering they also took our South Africa in the T20 World Cup and some of their key players are finding form.
 
They are fighting back but the total is too low to defend.
 
Bangladesh needs to be very careful here, 1 or 2 more quick wickets and they are out of this game.
 
They were looking good to post a 300+ total against India today but they couldn't capitalize the last 10 overs of their innings as they lose too many wicket too quickly but they will surely capable of making 1-2 upsets in this World Cup.
 
cant believe their bowling failed. Pathetic cricket by them
 
Disappointing two outings for the Asian ghoda.

I think they are a threat in T20s but the bigger the format, the bigger their problems. They just get exposed as an overall unit in longer formats. In T20s, 2 players can win you a match. But you can’t hide non performers in longer formats.
 
Lol Afghanistan are reserving all their energy, Josh , jazba for the Pakistan match, everything before that it's just a practise for them. Matches against India are just exhibition and Charity matche's for them where they laugh, hug and let India win ..
 
One of the biggest upsets in WC history. Congrats AFG for defeating the current Champions England:)

Afghanistan won by 69 runs against England.
 
Congrats Afghan team. Awesome game and best of luck for the rest of the tournament. It's great to see Afghan becoming stronger with each passing year, hopefully they will compete like this more often. We need more stronger teams in cricket to make such tournaments interesting
 
Congratulations to AfG and all the AFG who already are on red notice living in Pakistan a moment of joy for them they will start as favourites against Pakistan in Chennai
 
Afghanistan scripted an unbelievable victory over defending champions England in Delhi in the first major upset of the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.

The last match at this venue had seen India chase down 273 against the Afghanistan side with 15 overs to spare. The game before that saw the highest aggregate score in a Cricket World Cup game with South Africa making 428/5 and Sri Lanka replying with 326.

Even with 284, their second-highest World Cup score, on board after a fighting effort late in the innings from Ikram Ali Khil and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the consensus was that Afghanistan had made an under-par score.

Liam Livingstone hinted as much at the innings break, stating that the team had opted to bowl first with the dew factor in mind.

But in a stunning turn of events, Afghanistan chipped away at England’s acclaimed batting line-up, nipping out their ever-reliable top three before the first 15 overs.

How exactly did Afghanistan pull off this memorable upset win?

Once put in to bat, the change had to come from the top of the order, where Afghanistan have often been guilty of slow starts.

To push England at a venue that had record-breaking batting numbers recently, they needed a total above par and Rahmanullah Gurbaz set the template by putting the England attack to the sword early.

With 79 runs in the first 10 overs and no wickets down, the first part of the job was done. It was Afghanistan’s greatest start in a World Cup game in the first Powerplay.

They needed Gurbaz to carry on from there, but despite him failing to make a ton after a miserable runout, the platform had been laid by the opening stand of 114.

Like with the Powerplay, Afghanistan aren’t known to go big in the death overs. Afghanistan’s strike rate is just over 100 in the death overs since the end of the last Cricket World Cup, one of the worst among teams to feature in this tournament.

The start of the death overs indicated as much with the Afghan side making just 21 runs from overs 41 to 45 and losing power hitter Rashid Khan in between.

Mujeeb, who has recently stepped up with the bat more than once, turned the tides with a fiery onslaught on Sam Curran, a bowler Afghanistan targetted right through the game, with the 46th over yielding 18 runs.

Ali Khil and Mujeeb hit a few more boundaries, but with the two dismissed before the end, Afghanistan had still managed lesser than they would have liked. But the key this time was that they had managed to put England under the pump despite being six down at the 40-over mark.

There were early signs that 284 might just be enough for this Afghanistan attack, heavy on spinners. England’s spinners had gone at an economy rate of 3.9 as against 7.3 by the pacers.

But England’s woes against spin seemed to be a thing of the past. Dawid Malan, a key cog in the batting wheel, is one of the best players of spin, averaging 75.3 and striking at 107.4 since 2022.

And once Malan enters the post-powerplay phase, he is a difficult batter to dismiss. Since 2022, and before this game, Malan had been dismissed only five times while averaging 140.6.

It was key for Afghanistan to see the back of Jonny Bairstow early and Fazal Farooqi did that by exploiting Bairstow’s weakness against left-arm pace. Joe Root’s wicket was an added bonus in the first 10 overs, but there was still the in-form Malan to dismiss and it took a delivery of terrific deception from Mohammad Nabi to work over Malan.

The off-spinner tossed the ball up nicely and got it to dip to force the error off Malan, with the wicket officially setting off panic alarms in the England camp.

Despite having England three down, Afghanistan weren’t truly on top with the Jos Buttler-led side boasting of a long batting line-up. The skipper himself was the greatest hurdle standing in the way of Afghanistan and a victory.

It required some pretty smart bowling from Naveen-ul-Haq to work over Buttler with a beauty to truly see Afghanistan ascend to the top.

The pacer bowled a maiden over at the skipper and then slanted one back into him a few balls later to clean him up. The massive wicket put England’s batting under too much pressure with Rashid Khan still having a large chunk of overs up his sleeve.

Even with Harry Brook carrying on for England, Buttler's wicket seemed to be the actual turning point that firmly tilted the balance of the game Afghanistan's way.

Afghanistan brought an end to a 14-match losing streak in the Cricket World Cup. After going winless in the 2019 event, Afghanistan turned the tide against England using a mix of skill and smarts to beat the defending champions.

It was the first time England had lost eight wickets to spin in a World Cup game, a downfall that was brilliantly scripted by a trio of Afghanistan spinners on top of their game.
 
I don’t think Afghanistan are going to settle with just one win.

They will probably now make it their aim to win a few more and put themselves in semis contention. Anything is possible now. If they can beat England, why can’t they beat a few more teams out there?
 
large_16_9_webp.webp
Dear Afghanistan,

We, in Bharat, have incredible respect and love for your humble, exciting, talented and extremely hard working cricket team.

They are a joy to watch and have been excellent ambassadors of Afghanistan, of this game and for peace.

We hope that you will not stop at 1 historic win but go for many more and hopefully even be in a situation to fight for the semis spot.

In hour of this beautiful friendship that we Bharatiyas have with you all, as a tribute to our pyar-mohobbat , i am changing my display photo to that of Badhshah Khan from the blockbuster Bollywood movie Khuda Gawah. My love for you all is no less than the love Mohtarma Benazir had for Badshah Khan.

From Sur-zameen-e-Hindustan
With love
Bhaijaan
 
images
Ishq mera mazhab
Mohobbat mera imaan

- Badhshah Khan of Kabul

Azmayish, kadi hae.
Imtehaan mushqil
Lekin, honsla buland!
 
"Right At The Bottom...": Afghanistan Coach Jonathan Trott Blasts Team's Fielding After Loss To New Zealand

After a 149-run pummelling at the hands of New Zealand, a fuming Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott on Wednesday pointed out under-par catching as the reason behind his side's mauling here in the World Cup match. The Afghan fielders dropped as many as five catches at Chepauk, and the main beneficiaries were Tom Latham (68) and Glenn Phillips (71) as the reprieves helped the Kiwis duo to stitch together a 144-run stand for the fifth wicket.

"I would say that it's not the pressure. I think it's been happening a bit too much recently as well since I've been in charge," Trott started in the post-match press meet.

"So, if you look at the statistics, unfortunately, the side is right at the bottom with regards to catching. So, that needs to improve. I think it's something we've worked really hard on in training. We just need to do it in games now," Trott explained further.

However, the former England batter gave credit to the Black Caps for bouncing back from a precarious situation of 110 for 4.

"I think they (Latham and Phillips) played well. But credit must go to the way they held the innings together because it could have got a lot worse for them. They steadied the ship and got themselves to a defendable total," he said.

Of late, Rashid Khan generally stays away from bowling the Power Plays, and Trott said the reason was more technical than anything else.

"Well, we were just waiting until the state of the ball...when Rashid feels like he can grip it because he obviously needs to spin it both ways and when the ball is not as new and not as slippery." However, Trott was satisfied with the general standard of bowling of his team.

"We were bowling well, I thought, and containing them decently. Then Azmat came on and changed the course of the game with two wickets in an over. And then, Rash (Rashid) got a wicket for himself." However, Trott asserted that despite the wicket playing slow, it wasn't a low-scoring pitch.

"I certainly did not feel it's a 130-odd all-out pitch. Yes, it did spin a little bit more towards the end. But I still feel we were taking the spinners for nearly five, six an over.​

"The seamers actually did all the damage for them (NZ), and I think we were 28 for 2 at the end of the first power play, which when you're chasing 280, is probably going to put a lot of pressure on the players down the order," he signed off.

Source-NDTV
 
People mostly associate Ajay Jadeja with fixing and rightly so but old timers like me would remember what a street smart cricketer he was back in the 90s. A brilliant fielder, swift runner between the wickets and a great cricketing mind. Infact, had he not got banned for fixing, he was in line for next Indian captain instead of Saurav Ganguly.

I was so happy to see Ajay Jadeja in the thick of things again as a mentor of Afghanistan team. The running between the wickets and the methodical run chase by Afg players makes me wonder how much influence Jadeja had on the team.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1716505320556757286
 
lol, no we dont.

This should be merged with Afghanistan cricket thread.

Just cause you saw one Indian guy in the dugout of Afghanistan team, all Indian media is giving him credit as he has changed Afghanistan Cricket. He is there for only the world cup and was hired at the start of the world cup. This is as absurd as when Umar Gul was the coach of Afghanistan team and every Pakistani social media expert was giving credit to Umar Gul.

Point is, a mentor or coach that is hired for 1 month doesnt deserve credit or special attention.

The reason why Afghanistan Cricket is doing good in this World Cup, (it might sound very odd), but its because the Taliban govt did not intervene in the team selection and allowed the ACB to select a team based on the performances and conditions of India.

In the 2019 World Cup, Afghanistan was expected to have a very good squad, but than out of no where, Hamid Hassan, Dawlat Zadran, Noor Ali Zadran and Mirwais Ashraf were added in the squad along with Gulbaddin Naib being made the captain. These guys were out of the team and non regulars at the time, and got themselves in the team. This led to Afghanistan having a terrible World Cup in 2019. Had Afghanistan performed a squad back than of regular players they would had won a game or two even back than because Asghar Stanikzai's team was doing very well.

For this world cup, the ACB had learned there lesson, and Mirwais Ashraf was in ACB this time and not a player anymore, they selected a squad of guys that were playing regular cricket. They knew there batting has been an issue in odi so they kept Rehmat Shah and Hashmat as middle order batsman and also bought Najibullah back for hard hitting. Only issue with Alikhil who is not a very good batter but still made it to the squad.

As for spinners, Afghanistan has always opened the bowling with Mujeeb Ur Rehman and Noor Ali was someone they wanted to play eventually. Infact, Afghanistan has spinners like Zahir Khan, Shraffudin Ashraf and Qais Ahmad waiting to get a chance.

So plz, dont come here and try to give credit to an Indian guy you saw on camera in the dugout for only 1 month.

Afghanistan Cricket team doing well is because of Taj Malik, Kabir Khan, Raees Ahmadzai and even other guys that joined them in the past. From the current slot, Jonathan Trott deserves alot of credit who bought in batsman that play slow cricket and dont start hitting every ball out of the park.

I am not surprised that Tendulkar decided to tune into a match, saw Ajay jadeja and decided to take the Indian credit here. That is pathetic stuff and insulting to the people that have done work with Afghanistan. I would also say the same thing that gave credit to Umar Gul for nothing aswell.
 
Major said:
lol, no we dont.

This should be merged with Afghanistan cricket thread.

Just cause you saw one Indian guy in the dugout of Afghanistan team, all Indian media is giving him credit as he has changed Afghanistan Cricket. He is there for only the world cup and was hired at the start of the world cup. This is as absurd as when Umar Gul was the coach of Afghanistan team and every Pakistani social media expert was giving credit to Umar Gul.

Point is, a mentor or coach that is hired for 1 month doesnt deserve credit or special attention.

The reason why Afghanistan Cricket is doing good in this World Cup, (it might sound very odd), but its because the Taliban govt did not intervene in the team selection and allowed the ACB to select a team based on the performances and conditions of India.

In the 2019 World Cup, Afghanistan was expected to have a very good squad, but than out of no where, Hamid Hassan, Dawlat Zadran, Noor Ali Zadran and Mirwais Ashraf were added in the squad along with Gulbaddin Naib being made the captain. These guys were out of the team and non regulars at the time, and got themselves in the team. This led to Afghanistan having a terrible World Cup in 2019. Had Afghanistan performed a squad back than of regular players they would had won a game or two even back than because Asghar Stanikzai's team was doing very well.

For this world cup, the ACB had learned there lesson, and Mirwais Ashraf was in ACB this time and not a player anymore, they selected a squad of guys that were playing regular cricket. They knew there batting has been an issue in odi so they kept Rehmat Shah and Hashmat as middle order batsman and also bought Najibullah back for hard hitting. Only issue with Alikhil who is not a very good batter but still made it to the squad.

As for spinners, Afghanistan has always opened the bowling with Mujeeb Ur Rehman and Noor Ali was someone they wanted to play eventually. Infact, Afghanistan has spinners like Zahir Khan, Shraffudin Ashraf and Qais Ahmad waiting to get a chance.

So plz, dont come here and try to give credit to an Indian guy you saw on camera in the dugout for only 1 month.

Afghanistan Cricket team doing well is because of Taj Malik, Kabir Khan, Raees Ahmadzai and even other guys that joined them in the past. From the current slot, Jonathan Trott deserves alot of credit who bought in batsman that play slow cricket and dont start hitting every ball out of the park.

I am not surprised that Tendulkar decided to tune into a match, saw Ajay jadeja and decided to take the Indian credit here. That is pathetic stuff and insulting to the people that have done work with Afghanistan. I would also say the same thing that gave credit to Umar Gul for nothing aswell.
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Likes of Jonathan Trott , Kabir Khan, Taj Malik etall has been associated with Afghan team for a long time but they were hardly getting any success. The only addition being Jadeja for the world cup and the result is 2 victories against England and Pakistan. So one have to ask the question whether it is Jadeja's inputs that has helped Afghanistan cricket team.
 
Afghans should defeat Sri Lanka and Netherlands.

I think they may return home with 8 points (which is a very good performance).
 
Rajdeep said:
Likes of Jonathan Trott , Kabir Khan, Taj Malik etall has been associated with Afghan team for a long time but they were hardly getting any success. The only addition being Jadeja for the world cup and the result is 2 victories against England and Pakistan. So one have to ask the question whether it is Jadeja's inputs that has helped Afghanistan cricket team.
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i think i wrote a whole essay why they were not getting success in 2019 world cup.

Also, are you gonna come here and say Taj Malik and Kabir Khan did not have success? Bro, those two guys bought this team from WCL 5 to Test membership.

Before coming in here to give credit to Ajay Jadeja because you and tendu saw him on your tv screen, its better to know some history of the team.

Next thing, you guys will even take credit for Mujeeb for opening the bowling attack and Noor playing.
 
Major said:
i think i wrote a whole essay why they were not getting success in 2019 world cup.

Also, are you gonna come here and say Taj Malik and Kabir Khan did not have success? Bro, those two guys bought this team from WCL 5 to Test membership.

Before coming in here to give credit to Ajay Jadeja because you and tendu saw him on your tv screen, its better to know some history of the team.

Next thing, you guys will even take credit for Mujeeb for opening the bowling attack and Noor playing.
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Agree, its unfair to credit Jadeja for this success. Trott and others built the team while Jadeja was crucial in giving insights regarding the Indian conditions which the other coaching staff may not be aware of. So its a total team effort of everyone from players to support staff. Remember this team almost chased beat Pakistan recently and achased 270+ against Sl in around 40 overs. jadeja was not with the team then.
 
Next 2 games of Afg are against Sri Lanka and Netherlands. If they manage to win these two games and Australia loses its next two games against NZ and England, the match after that will be Australia vs Afghanistan which can be the quater final match.
 
Afg has matches against Netherlands and Srilanka. They will win at least 1 of those matches. They have it in them to cause one more upset. Overall, they can win a max of 3 matches from here if they play well. They could miss out the SF spot due to NRR.
 
Major said:
Next 2 games of Afg are against Sri Lanka and Netherlands. If they manage to win these two games and Australia loses its next two games against NZ and England, the match after that will be Australia vs Afghanistan which can be the quater final match.
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Too many filters there. I don't think Aus will lose to Afg. Their batsmen have hit tremendous form and their spin attack is also firing all of a sudden. Will take a major effort for Afg to beat Australia.
 
Champ_Pal said:
Too many filters there. I don't think Aus will lose to Afg. Their batsmen have hit tremendous form and their spin attack is also firing all of a sudden. Will take a major effort for Afg to beat Australia.
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Its all about the Afghan spinners. Australia sucks against spinners. But lets see what happens in the first two games for both the teams.
 
Need them to do a job for us now against the aussies, and also hope their bunnies NZ can get one over on them

extremely slim chances though since we also need to win all of our remaining games 😂
 
Major said:
Its all about the Afghan spinners. Australia sucks against spinners. But lets see what happens in the first two games for both the teams.
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They don't, the whole team is a has been team. Smith only scored cause nedtherlands suck.

Australia is a champions team because even while being a tired horse, their strategic and play with their hearts out and don't cry and give up.

So their not likely to lose to afg, Afg is a bit mentally weak, not as mentally weak as Pakistan though, they do crumble under pressure scenarios. They just didn't crumble against Pakistan because they've played us so much they were beyond hungry for the win
 
Australia don't lose to minnows when at full strength.
 
Its commendable that AFG has defeated 3 former world cup champions in this edition including the defending champion. Though unlikely they have a clear shot at the 4th SF berth. Even if they finish 5th it will be a huge achievement.
 
They will only get better in the future

Hopefully the idiots in the pcb and prima Donna's in our team take note a country like afghanistan handicapped by so many internal and external factors looks a much superior team
 
No politics played.
No needless complaints raised about hospitality
Just a 100% committed cricket team, being true ambassadors of their nation and making their people proud.

Take a bow Afghan cricket team.

We love to have had you here and it’s been a hell of a journey.

You have single handedly made this World Cup one of the greatest ever.
 
Afghanistan will take Pakistan as a white ball team very soon if they haven’t already.

Few years down the lines, wins over Afghanistan will be are rare as wins over India.

A war-torn nation that didn’t even play professional cricket 15 years ago and don’t have 1% the financial resources Pakistan does.

Pakistan doesn’t have 1% the natural talent Afghanistan has. They are physically so superior. All they needed was more experience and a mentor who could improve their game awareness and they found that mentor in Trott.

Best fast bowling this and that, PSL this and that, Babar this and that. All nonsense.
 
great cricket by AFG, especially considering they never play in front of their home crowd. Clearly their player ages are questionable but playing at this level it doesn't even matter. They look calm, composed, confident and compact. They never looked perturbed or panicked while chasing against either Pak or SL. They seemed to have everything under control. Even when they lost wickets, next batsman came, settled down and played good cricket. I am very impressed and excited about their future. If this unit plays together for few years, they will make it to Semis and Finals. Asia cup will become really competitive.
 
Haan bhai? Kaisa deya

I am hoping they make it to the semis.
 
Just seeing Twitter videos from kabul, kandhahar and other tier 2 cities ... Looks like these wins have brought some much needed smiles and relief to the nation. They are bursting crackers and bullets..... 🙂
 
Mamoon said:
Afghanistan will take Pakistan as a white ball team very soon if they haven’t already.

Few years down the lines, wins over Afghanistan will be are rare as wins over India.

A war-torn nation that didn’t even play professional cricket 15 years ago and don’t have 1% the financial resources Pakistan does.

Pakistan doesn’t have 1% the natural talent Afghanistan has. They are physically so superior. All they needed was more experience and a mentor who could improve their game awareness and they found that mentor in Trott.

Best fast bowling this and that, PSL this and that, Babar this and that. All nonsense.
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As an Afghan cricket supporter, i disagree with you.

Afghanistan cricket can still fail and end up just like Bangladesh cricket of 2012-2016.

For Afghanistan to take over Pakistan as a white ball team, they would need to develop a team that can play in all countries worldwide. Afghanistan has developed their spin talent and have a massive spin talent in there country. That will help them in winning games in subcontinent. However, they dont have pace bowlers. There pace bowlers tend to vanish away quite quickly, and that is going to be a major issue for them.

To win games out of subcontinent you need pacers.

There batting has done well here, but they still need a good set of of batters.

In the last 10 years, Afghanistan has improved alot. They were once knowing as 11 afridis playing to smack the ball out of the park, but now they are building innings. Now for this strategy, Afghanistan on purpose chooses players with low strike rates as they know atleast these guys dont throw wickets, while others that had higher strike rates would through there wickets quite often.

Another major issue in Afghan cricket has been the ACB. The board tends to select team based on contacts and sifarish. The 2019 World Cup squad was chosen like that, but for 2023 they went on full merit.


So there are issues. Right now, Afghanistan needs to set small targets. Spin is there main weapon, so dominate in subcontinent. At the same time develop bowlers and make the Afghan board structure stronger. Too match Pakistan, if they spend good 15 years, they can match us.

But at the same time they can also fail like Bangladesh if they dont develop players and fix their board issues
 
Really enjoyed watching the way they have played in this World Cup.

The talent has been there, the discipline was lacking at times.

Trott has brought solid gameplans and more discipline to the team and he deserves a lot of credit for that.
 
It was a almost a perfect chase by them. They made a plan and then executed is perfectly. This was their plan with the run chase that was shown live on TV.

1VhdpSO.jpg
 
Rana said:
What 3 other teams will join Afghanistan in the semis?
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Nikhil_cric said:
No chance of making semis.
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topspin said:
Lol they're not reaching semi-finals. That's wishful thinking from an Afghan supporter.
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Rana said:
I’m intrigued to know who else will reach the semis according to op
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topspin said:
I guess it's whoever the next best teams are in following the tuk-tuk formula because players like SKY are "overhyped" ofc.
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Cric1234 said:
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Netherlands
Pakistan

The stage is set for the power hitters of the top teams to be put in their place by these four teams.

:razzaq
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This is why never go into threads making fun of every topic which you dont know about.

Afghanistan may or may not make the semi finals. But the stage is all set for them. They came with the perfect squad for this world cup and have outperformed Pakistan and England (Current Champions).

3 wins against 3 major teams is a very big feat for this team.
 
Major said:
As an Afghan cricket supporter, i disagree with you.

Afghanistan cricket can still fail and end up just like Bangladesh cricket of 2012-2016.

For Afghanistan to take over Pakistan as a white ball team, they would need to develop a team that can play in all countries worldwide. Afghanistan has developed their spin talent and have a massive spin talent in there country. That will help them in winning games in subcontinent. However, they dont have pace bowlers. There pace bowlers tend to vanish away quite quickly, and that is going to be a major issue for them.

To win games out of subcontinent you need pacers.

There batting has done well here, but they still need a good set of of batters.

In the last 10 years, Afghanistan has improved alot. They were once knowing as 11 afridis playing to smack the ball out of the park, but now they are building innings. Now for this strategy, Afghanistan on purpose chooses players with low strike rates as they know atleast these guys dont throw wickets, while others that had higher strike rates would through there wickets quite often.

Another major issue in Afghan cricket has been the ACB. The board tends to select team based on contacts and sifarish. The 2019 World Cup squad was chosen like that, but for 2023 they went on full merit.


So there are issues. Right now, Afghanistan needs to set small targets. Spin is there main weapon, so dominate in subcontinent. At the same time develop bowlers and make the Afghan board structure stronger. Too match Pakistan, if they spend good 15 years, they can match us.

But at the same time they can also fail like Bangladesh if they dont develop players and fix their board issues
Click to expand...
There is a key difference between the two nations: physical superiority.

This is why Afghanistan won’t go the BD way.
 
sweep_shot said:
Are Afghans minnows in these conditions? I don't think so.

Afghanistan are a solid mid-tier team in Asia.
Click to expand...

They've beaten England, Pakistan and now Sri Lanka, that too in a World Cup competition. They can no longer be referred to as minnows in limited over games.
 
hassan918 said:
It was a almost a perfect chase by them. They made a plan and then executed is perfectly. This was their plan with the run chase that was shown live on TV.

1VhdpSO.jpg
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A very good plan. Trott now understands the limitation of this team, so he plays around those limitations and it has worked. This was a great plan. It is not in there mind to play KOs or try to get advantage through NRR.

They are just playing to win the games, and they are doing that quite well. I hope they beat NLs and if they do so. The game against Australia could be a Quater final match (If Australia loses to England).
 
Mamoon said:
Afghanistan will take Pakistan as a white ball team very soon if they haven’t already.

Few years down the lines, wins over Afghanistan will be are rare as wins over India.

A war-torn nation that didn’t even play professional cricket 15 years ago and don’t have 1% the financial resources Pakistan does.

Pakistan doesn’t have 1% the natural talent Afghanistan has. They are physically so superior. All they needed was more experience and a mentor who could improve their game awareness and they found that mentor in Trott.

Best fast bowling this and that, PSL this and that, Babar this and that. All nonsense.
Click to expand...

Are they going to start beating Bharat through physical superiority too? Come on bro, cricket is a game of skill, if it was just about brute force then our 150kph slingers like Rauf would be getting all the wickets instead of Afghan spinners.

Let's just give credit to the Afghans for their cricket, leave the Pak-trolling for more suitable threads.
 
Mamoon said:
There is a key difference between the two nations: physical superiority.

This is why Afghanistan won’t go the BD way.
Click to expand...
bro, physical superiority means nothing.

I also used to believe in this, but the thing is, you need to have talent, proper system, hard work and icon players.

Going by the physical superiority logic, Afghanistan should have 5-8 fast bowlers in their team, but they dont. Why? Because initially, Afghanistan did produce 4-5 fast bowlers back in 2010 - 2014. They were able to produce these fast bowlers because at that time the Icon player of Afghanistan was Hamid Hassan. So many young cricketers were copying him and were becoming pacers. When Rashid Khan came into the system and became the Icon player within 2-3 years, all of a sudden the fast bowlers vanished and spinners started showing up.

Bangladesh cricket improved in 2012-2016 not because they had physical superiority for 4 years, but because they improved their club system, introduce the dhaka premier league and were able to develop a few batters and bowlers. Bangladesh cricket also learn the basic strategy which was to dominate at home first than play overseas. Bangladesh never developed a squad for overseas games.

Similarly, Afghanistan should look to dominate in Subcontinent, but at the same time develop players for outside of subcontinent, and for that process they would need a cricket board that will actually work on improving the game and not be involved in regional politics.

The 2019 World Cup is the best example, where Afghanistan destroyed their own team in one night by making political selections

If we talk about physical superiority than why do Asian Countries perform well in Olympics? Why Afghanistan not crossing India in Cricket?
 
1698689178213.jpeg

[Reporter:]

And how were those whiteboard targets? You were well ahead this time when the match got over. So, your thoughts on that and how do those targets work when you're batting first?

[Jonathan Trott:]

Well, I think when it's batting first, it's a little bit different. I think it's more a case of communication and the targets will change. When it's chasing, the target obviously never changes, unless it's Duckworth Lewis, obviously.

So, there's a bit more focus with regards to breaking it down into smaller targets. But sometimes, certainly like the Pakistan game, chasing 280 and starting on 0, it's a long way away. But if you break it down, it seems a lot more manageable.

So those sorts of things, little things, you know, motivating the players and keeping them in touch with where we want to be. And it's also a feel-good factor. If you know you're on the right track, it's also a nice feeling as well. But for batting first, obviously, you see how you go. You know, most games, there's over 300 as your average. So, we don't want to limit the guys on what they can do batting first. We want them to assess the conditions and make sure we go out there and get as many as we can. So, it just worked out that we chased today.
 
This is how you do your homwork;

Against Pakistan who struggle against spin, they played the spinner Noor Ahmed I think his was name and he took vital wickets.

And against SL they brought back Farooqi who took 4 wickets.

I am happy for AFG but at the same time gutted to see the lack of planning and intelligence in our pakistani camp. We have played Test cricket for ages, I believe in all the WCs as well, but still nowhere near where we should be.
 
Mamoon said:
There is a key difference between the two nations: physical superiority.

This is why Afghanistan won’t go the BD way.
Click to expand...
India is beating crap out of every team, but what physical superiority is there?
 
IAJ said:
This is how you do your homwork;

Against Pakistan who struggle against spin, they played the spinner Noor Ahmed I think his was name and he took vital wickets.

And against SL they brought back Farooqi who took 4 wickets.

I am happy for AFG but at the same time gutted to see the lack of planning and intelligence in our pakistani camp. We have played Test cricket for ages, I believe in all the WCs as well, but still nowhere near where we should be.
Click to expand...
to be fair, they did not make selection according to the opposition but according to the conditions. Chennai was spin friendly. While Pune offered pacers an advantage.
 
I think it will be India vs Afg in semi final (1st place vs 4th place) in Mumbai.
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
Are they going to start beating Bharat through physical superiority too? Come on bro, cricket is a game of skill, if it was just about brute force then our 150kph slingers like Rauf would be getting all the wickets instead of Afghan spinners.

Let's just give credit to the Afghans for their cricket, leave the Pak-trolling for more suitable threads.
Click to expand...
Rauf hasn’t hit 150 in a while.

Afghanistan may beat India if they two were to play more frequently. But they are on par to surpass Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the next 24 months.
 
Afghanistan performances in this world cup have been excellent. If they beat the Netherlands, then there game after it effectively could become a 4th place finish decider vs Australia.

Also I'm wondering how much Afghanistan will regret the poor loss to Bangladesh as that could cost them a semi-final place.
 
Saj said:
Really enjoyed watching the way they have played in this World Cup.

The talent has been there, the discipline was lacking at times.

Trott has brought solid gameplans and more discipline to the team and he deserves a lot of credit for that.
Click to expand...
Just goes to show what happens when you have a good coach, captain, game plans and you respect the conditions your playing in. Complete opposite to pakistans pathetic efforts in this world cup
 
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