Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott said they could have given New Zealand a run for their money in Wednesday’s World Cup game if they had not dropped several catches.
Afghanistan were punished for their sloppy fielding after flooring four catches and also missed a stumping opportunity as New Zealand maintained their perfect record with a 149-run win.
The result left Afghanistan ninth in the stand-ings, just days after a stunning upset over England had fuelled their hopes of climbing up the table.
“It’s not the pressure, I think it’s been happen-ing a bit too much recently as well since I’ve been in charge,” Trott told reporters.
“If you look at the statistics, unfortunately the side is right at the bottom with regards to catching. So that needs to improve and it’s something we’ve worked really hard on in training, we just need to do it in games now.”
New Zealand’s Will Young was dropped in the second over and the opener went on to smash a fifty before Rachin Ravindra (32) was dropped on nought.—APP
