Rashid said a score of around 160-170 would be par on this surface as the bowling attack was confident despite Mujeeb Ur Rahman being out with a hand injury.
He said, “This is something we discussed before entering the competition. “If we get a score of around 160-170 on this track with the bowling setup we have, it will give the opposition a tough time. We knew we had support for the bowlers at the wicket. Keeping things simple and consistently using the right areas as long as we hit the shots will be more effective for us, especially the way the seamers start bowling and then Nabi bowls the second, which is very positive for us with our spinners. We’ve got the ball rolling, but we’re still bowling tight and if we play to our potential as a bowling unit, it’s going to be very difficult for the opposition to get 160 runs.”
The most disappointing part, Williamson said, was the defense.
They also have many mistakes to regret. Specifically the two catches they put down and the runout and stumbling opportunity they missed. Williamson also felt that the Afghanistan batsmen “played beautifully” to reach a total of 159 on a “ridiculous surface”.
“I think the most disappointing part was the fielding in the first 10 overs,” he said. “It’s difficult on a wicket like that to restrict the opposition when you’re not together on the field. We certainly had our chances in the first half but didn’t take them.
“They outperformed us in every aspect of the game,” Williamson said of Afghanistan. “To achieve such a total on such a tricky surface, they played beautifully with wickets in hand. For us, it wasn’t enough to start the tournament. It’s very frustrating, but it’s a quick turnaround for us. Now we have to quickly regroup and move on to the next challenge. .”
New Zealand will now fly to Taruba ahead of their next match on June 11. A second win by West Indies over Uganda by then would make New Zealand’s chances of qualifying for the next stage even more difficult.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction first,” Williamson said of the next game. “Our performance was not good enough and we expected more from ourselves and we know we are better than that. We know another big challenge is coming and West Indies are playing fantastic cricket. For us, it’s about putting together a performance that we can be proud of and give ourselves the best chance to do.
“It’s the chances we had and the ones we didn’t take and on a surface like that it goes a long way to change scores and results. We had a few overs to keep it probably defensible but we should have gotten it in the second innings. We took advantage of what was offered and performed really well.”
