Hashmatullah Shahidi, the captain of Afghanistan, expressed his dissatisfaction with his team’s fielding performance in Dharamsala, when New Zealand easily defeated them by 149 runs.
After having them at 110 for 4 in the 22nd over, Afghanistan shelled as many as five catches and missed a stumping, allowing Shahidi to himself put a chance down.
“I’m really sad because you have to take those kinds of catches to advance in this level. At the post-game presentation ceremony, Shahidi stated, “At the end of the day, the [dropped] catches hurt us.” “The team was doing good, but the fielding, because of that we fell a little bit down.”
After 44 overs, New Zealand was on 210 runs, but in the next six overs, Glenn Phillips, Tom Latham, and Mark Chapman hit 78 runs apiece.
Latham and Phillips, who had maintained a 100-run partnership until the 44th over, were both given rest periods. Shahidi stated that it was difficult for them to halt the run flow because they had put batters in the middle.
“The New Zealand team scored a lot of runs in the last six overs. We did, however, miss two catches prior to the 40th over. Because the set batsmen were present, that partnership continued and we were unable to halt them. Although we made every effort, things went their way.”
