World Cup 2023: Jonathan Trott regrets drop catches after Afghanistan lose to New Zealand

Head coach Jonathan Trott wasn’t happy with Afghanistan’s fielding after his team slumped to a heavy 149-run defeat at the hands of Tom Latham’s New Zealand on Thursday, October 19 in the World Cup 2023 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

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Trott said that had the catches been taken, the result of the match against the Black Caps could have been different.

“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. So, if you look at the statistics, unfortunately, the side is right at the bottom with regards to catching. So that needs to improve and I think it’s something we’ve worked really hard on in training we just need to do it in games now,” Trott said in the post-match press conference.

In the second over, Rahmat Shah dropped a simple catch in the slips to give Will Young a lifeline when the batter was on a duck. Young went on to score 54 runs off 64 balls before eventually getting out to Azmatullah Omarzai.

In the ninth over, skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi put down Rachin Ravindra, who was yet to open his account. Ravindra made them pay after scoring 32 off 41.

Later in the innings, Tom Latham was dropped twice after Shahidi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman made a meal of relatively simple chances. Rashid Khan was the unlucky bowler in both instances.

“We dropped a catch in the second over and we dropped a few catches, really. We dropped Ravindra on nought, we dropped Young on nought. So that sort of gives a little bit of momentum to the opposition. I think if we had taken those and with the wicket of Conway, we would have been in a much better position as well.

“Not only like they were, I think they were about 116 for four at one stage, if I’m not mistaken. So, we would have been in an even better position had we held on to those catches. But it wasn’t to be and, unfortunately, we have to go home regretting those tonight,” he added.

Capitalising on Afghanistan’s poor fielding, Latham and Glenn Phillips put on 144 runs for the fourth wicket and that turned out to be the deciding factor in the context of the match.

Chasing 288, the Afghans lost Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz early, after which they were bowled out for 139 in 34.4 overs.