'Don’t know when we'll play against a top nation next' - Asghar Afghan rues lack of opportunities for Afghanistan

Australia won their latest Super 12 Group 1 against Afghanistan to remain in the race for the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final spot on Friday (November 4). The hosts moved to the second position with seven points from their five group-stage fixtures but are yet to secure a semi-final spot. They need England to lose their last game against Sri Lanka on November 5 to progress to the semi-final round. 

Afghanistan's World Cup campaign ended with a frustrating defeat as they failed by just four runs while chasing a big 169-run target at Adelaide Oval. Australia struggled in the early stages, but Glenn Maxwell smashed unbeaten 54 runs off 32 balls to put a big total on the scorecard. Afghanistan also put up an impressive fight with the bat with Rashid Khan smashing unbeaten 48 runs off 23 balls, but it was not enough. 

Australia, playing in home conditions, managed to win a game by a short margin but their experience of playing in tough situations worked again. Afghanistan looked in control of the game with Ibrahim Zadran and Gulbadin Naib forming a crucial 59-run partnership for the third wicket, but Afghanistan lost both batters in the 14th over, which shifted the game's momentum completely.

The former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan also pointed out the difference between the two teams by saying that Afghanistan need to play more matches against big teams.

"All I can say is that the more matches we play, the better we will become. That’s the reason why we always say that unless we play more matches, we won’t have the idea. Today, we played our last match in the World Cup and next, we don’t know when we will get the opportunity to play against a top nation. It’s a good thing that ICC now allows the top nations to play against the qualifying nations," Asghar said in a BatBricks7 Run Ki RunNeeti post-match show on CricTracker.

"I think we had the match in our hands until the 13th over. I thought we will win the match because we had a lot of wickets. The ball was nicely coming to the bat but in the 14th and 15th overs, we lost four wickets. That changed our momentum. Nevertheless, it was a cracking game and even though Australia won the match, Afghanistan finally won our hearts," Asghar added.

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