Afghanistan and South Africa need a psychological boost after brutal defeats

How do you go again, after a heartbreaking loss like the one Afghanistan suffered on Tuesday night, knowing you’d given the principle of that defeat so many opportunities before he performed his cramped up miracle?

The Afghan players have experienced worse than losing a cricket match.

Their country has suffered through generations of genuine pain and loss.

There will be a perspective for them through which to view the events in Mumbai.

But still as a professional, that result will hurt.

Their coach, Jonathan Trott, said the players must be resilient.

“We lost the New Zealand game pretty heavily and came back and won the next game. We lost the India game very heavily, came back and beat England — so yeah there is evidence of us coming back.

“There is no time to muck around, we’ve got to pick ourselves up and learn from the experience,” said Trott.

Even before the match against Australia, Afghanistan had had a remarkable and memorable tournament.

Having won four matches, they remain in contention for the semifinals, though now, like Pakistan, they will be watching New Zealand’s clash with Sri Lanka on Thursday, hoping for an assist from their Asian counterparts.

A loss for New Zealand, especially a big one that drags down their net-run rate will open the door for Afghanistan ahead of their match with South Africa at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Friday.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow. It would really be nice just sitting here with 10 points. But hopefully that can still come after the South Africa game,” said Trott. 

The Proteas are also looking to bounce back after a disappointing defeat to the host nation last weekend.

Though their semifinal spot is secured, with that match being against Australia, they will want to show the defeat in Kolkata wasn’t psychologically damaging.

It’s easy to forget in the fog of disappointment after the outcome on Tuesday, that the Afghans did a lot well, which included how they built their innings, with Ibrahim Zadran becoming the first player from that country to score a World Cup hundred.

The Afghans employ a similar strategy to the Proteas, building a slow start before engaging in explosive hitting in the latter stages of the innings.

“It is important to be switched on and sensing the tempo of the game and identifying that moment, when the acceleration starts,” said the Proteas bowling coach, Eric Simons.

Afghanistan’s best start in the tournament came against England when they scored 79/0 in the power play, setting England a target of 285, which the defending champions failed to chase, losing by 69 runs.

Against the Australians, they showed patience at the start of the innings, scoring 46 runs in the opening power play, but then blasting 64 runs in the last five overs, thanks to Rashid Khan’s 35 off 18 balls.

Simons said the Proteas needed to be wary of that kind of charge.

“The important thing is that we don’t allow the opposition batters to dictate our tactics. Someone like Rashid Khan is a disrupter, he hits the ball in strange areas a bit like Roelof van der Merwe does.

“The way they come into the crease, the way they play, they disrupt you, and then they can take you off your game plan. It is important that you don’t allow them to,” said Simons.

“We saw that Afghanistan’s batters dictated to the Australian bowlers and as experienced as (Mitchell) Starc and (Josh) Hazlewood are, they almost seemed to get into their head and controlled the tempo of the game. It is important for the bowling line-up not to allow that.”