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Cricket

'Bahut bura laga' - Fans react as Afghanistan head coach admits they were not aware of qualification scenarios against Sri Lanka in Asia Cup 2023

Kusal Mendis scored a cracking 92 off 84 balls with six fours and three sixes for Sri Lanka. Jonathon Trott is the coach of Afgahnistan.

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Afghanistan (Source: Twitter)

In what was a major heartbreak for Afghanistan, They suffered a defeat by 2 runs against Sri Lanka in Asia Cup 2023. This defeat will go down as one of those by the bearest of margins. Afghanistan actually had more than 37.1 overs to chase the target down. But they were not aware of this fact. In a game that kept sea-sawing, Sri Lanka ultimately emerged winners and made it to the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup.

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A Test playing nation with heavy backroom staff had no idea about basic net run rate calculations. "We were never communicated those calculations," Jonathon Trott said at the post-match press conference against Sri Lanka in Lahore. "All we were communicated was we needed to win in 37.1 overs. We weren't told what the overs in which we could get 295 or 297. 38.1 overs was never communicated to us," The Afghanistan coach said.

There are areas in the game that we could have done better against Sri Lanka

After Sri Lanka put 291 batting first, there was only one way Afghanistan could reach the Super Four stage. That is if they chased the required runs within 37.1 overs. Then the commentators talked about another way in which Afghanistan could reach the target.

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Even if Afghanistan could not reach the 292 target, if they had hit a maximum when they were at 289, their total would have been registered as as 295 and not 292. They would have still won the match but their net run rate would have judged on the final score. So according to this, the highest they could have gotten to was 297 (by hitting a six when scores were tied). This would have given them time till 38.1 overs - that is six balls more.

"I don't think there's one reason we lost the game," Trott said. "There are areas of the game we could have done better and that goes for today's game and the one against Bangladesh. We got some things horribly wrong in a few areas and it's cost us. It'd be nice if we'd bowled them out a bit cheaper. But it wasn't to be." Trott further said.

Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter:

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Rashid Khan Afghanistan featured Twitter Reactions