Moments after Afghanistan's head coach Jonathan Trott walked into the press-conference room at Chepauk, a wall-mounted TV displayed one of Afghanistan's many drops in their World Cup game against New Zealand. Trott then lamented Afghanistan's sloppy catching and urged them to improve on that front.
"Well, we dropped a catch in the second over and we dropped a few catches, really," Trott said. We dropped [Rachin] Ravindra on nought, we dropped [Will] 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 [Devon] Conway, we would have been in a much better position as well. Not only like they were, I think they were about 116 [110] for four at one stage. "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."
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi also expressed frustration over his team's fielding effort in Chennai, where New Zealand trampled Afghanistan by 149 runs. In addition to shelling five catches, Afghanistan missed a stumping chance to let New Zealand off the hook on a two-paced Chepauk surface. Shahidi himself was responsible for two of those drops.
"Very disappointed because in this level you have to take those kinds of catches. End of the day, the [dropped] catches hurt us," Shahidi told Star Sports at the post-match presentation. "The team was doing good, but the fielding, because of that we fell a little bit down."
Afghanistan had created a stir when they toppled defending champions England in Delhi, but then they suffered a drubbing against New Zealand in Chennai. Trott wants his players to tighten their fundamental skills and deal with pressure better.
"Well, I certainly feel that [consistency] is what's needed," Trott said. "I think that's the only thing really stopping this team is doing the basics really well and that's consistency. So, if we had taken our catches and put New Zealand under pressure like we should have, I think you'd be looking at, not saying it would have changed the results as a fact, but you would have been looking at a very different performance.
"And that starts with the mindset of doing the things that seem really simple, but doing those day in, day out, regularly, and religiously. It's always standing in good stead because they're generally the things that will look after you when you're out there under pressure. And that's what's exposed us today, unfortunately."
Allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai, though, was a silver lining for Afghanistan, following up his double-strike with 27 off 32 balls against a skillful New Zealand attack on a helpful surface. Omarzai dismissed both Ravindra (32) and Young (54) in his first over before Tom Latham and Mark Chapman tore into him in the slog overs. Omarzai was also particularly impressive in the 2022-23 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), coming away as the highest wicket-taker among overseas players and fourth highest overall with 15 strikes in 11 matches at an economy rate of 7.17. Trott backs him to become a future star for Afghanistan.
"I see him with a very bright future with the bat and with the ball," Trott said. "I think the way he bats at the moment is developing really well and he is playing nicely. I would have liked him to have batted for a bit longer tonight and get a few more runs, but I've always rated him as a bowler and his bowling is coming on leaps and bounds.
"Unfortunately today, he couldn't quite get it right in the death overs when you needed him to. That was unfortunate and perhaps put them slightly ahead of where they should have been at one stage."