DTVHINDI“This is not the pitch you want to play a World Cup semi-final on” Head coach blames pitch for AFG’s defeat
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott has criticized the pitch used in Trinidad for the South Africa vs Afghanistan match. He has said that this pitch was not suitable to host the T20 World Cup semi-final. Afghanistan lost to the Proteas in the semi-final. Batting first, the Afghan team collapsed for just 56 runs, which was the lowest score ever by any team in a T20 World Cup semi-final. The South African bowlers were in great form right from the start of this match, with the Trinidad pitch having some uneven bounce and lateral seam movement helping the bowlers. The situation was the same in the second innings as well and the Proteas batsmen had to deal with the same problems, but in the end they won by 9 wickets. Jonathan Trott criticised the Trinidad pitch “I don’t want to embarrass myself and I don’t want to be a case of bitter or sour grapes, but this is not the pitch you want to play a World Cup semi-final on. The pitch has taken batting completely out of the game… it should be a fair contest. I’m not saying it should be completely flat, with no spin or seam movement, I’m saying you should give opportunities to the batsmen as well,” Trott said in the post-match press conference. Trott said, “We got back to the hotel at three o’clock and then we had to leave at eight o’clock – five hours later, so we didn’t get much sleep, so the players were very tired and they had to do a lot emotionally and physically. So this was all new for the players.” Trott admitted that they were outplayed by South Africa, but we knew the schedule, so that’s no excuse. When you go into a World Cup or tournament, you can’t have everything going your way, and you have to fight and play against the odds, which you have done many times and are proud of.
