Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott credited New Zealand for its scientific efficiency that put the Black Caps on the prime of the factors desk within the ongoing World Cup after a commanding 149-run win right here on Wednesday.
“I believe that New Zealand performed properly, however they obtained themselves in a troublesome place after we took fast wickets. Nonetheless, we couldn’t put stress on them for lengthy sufficient. We dropped (Tom) Latham twice however credit score goes to them, the way in which they performed and steadied the ship and constructed themselves to a defendable whole,” mentioned Trott after the match.
Azmatullah Omarzai was the silver lining in Afghanistan’s batting efficiency because the 23-year-old all-rounder scored 27 runs in a shedding trigger after choosing two wickets in a single over within the first innings.
READ MORE: New Zealand vs Afghanistan Highlights, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: NZ beats AFG by 149 runs
“I see him with a really shiny future with each bat and ball. His batting in the meanwhile is creating rather well. I’ve at all times rated him as a bowler and his bowling has come leaps and bounds. I wished him to bat a little bit longer tonight and get a number of extra runs however sadly, at the moment, he couldn’t fairly get it proper,” mentioned the coach.
About his staff’s general batting efficiency, Trott mentioned, “It actually doesn’t really feel just like the 130 pitch. Sure, it did spin a little bit extra in the direction of the top however I really feel that the seamers did all of the harm. We had been 28 for 2 after the primary PowerPlay, and if you end up chasing 280, it’ll put loads of stress on the gamers down the order.”
In the meantime, Mitchell Santner, who scalped three wickets, reached a major milestone by changing into solely the second Kiwi spinner to take 100 ODI wickets after Daniel Vettori.
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“It’s good to get to that milestone. I wasn’t occupied with it an excessive amount of main into the sport. I used to be simply attempting to carry out my position and do a job on the market, similar to each different recreation,” mentioned the 31-year-old.
Santner additionally felt the pitch helped the spinners through the second innings.
“It performed a bit completely different from the one in opposition to Bangladesh. That one had extra tempo and bounce than this one. This seemed a bit drier and it was good to see it type of spin a little bit greater than the primary innings,” he mentioned.