3 costly tactical mistakes Afghanistan made in their harrowing 2023 World Cup loss to Australia
Afghanistan had a day to forget at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as Glenn Maxwell pulled off the unthinkable to take Australia to a memorable three-wicket win on Tuesday, November 7.
It was a day that started off with a lot of promise, with Afghanistan being in the semifinal hunt and in a bouyant run of form. While they're not yet eliminated, with their final league game against South Africa to come, they have a rather improbable mountain to climb owing to their poor net run rate.
Hashmatullah Shahidi and his men did a lot of things right on Tuesday but undid all their good work with a few amateur errors, which the five-time world champions were always going to capitalise.
Here are three mistakes Afghanistan made in their harrowing 2023 World Cup loss to Australia.
#3 Afghanistan's senior batters didn't bat aggressively enough
Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran started cautiously, unwilling to give Australia's new-ball bowlers any wickets until the former guided a delivery straight to a fielder in the deep. Zadran, meanwhile, cantered along and rotated strike fairly well.
After the openers, though, Afghanistan's middle-order batters didn't do enough to build on a decent platform - and it was the senior men who came up short. Rahmat Shah ended up with a strike rate of 68.18, while captain Shahidi's was even worse at 60.46.
Shahidi's partnership with Zadran sucked all the momentum out of the innings, and although Rashid Khan and Azmatullah Omarzai tried their best to make up for the phase, Afghanistan ended up with around 30 runs fewer than they should have.
Mohammad Nabi's promotion ahead of Rashid, given the veteran's dismal batting form, was also a curious decision.
#2 Hashmat Shahidi didn't bring his fast bowlers back soon enough
Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins joined forces in the 19th over, by which time Omarzai and Naveen-ul-Haq had taken four of the seven wickets to fall. Afghanistan had plenty of overs of spin to come, with Rashid having bowled just three overs and Noor Ahmad one.
By the end of 30 overs, though, Rashid and Mujeeb had bowled seven each, and Noor had bowled six. Maxwell had raced away to 73, while Cummins' blockathon against spin complemented the former perfectly.
Even after that, Shahidi didn't bring the fast bowlers back to try and coax a false stroke. Naveen only returned to the attack in the 35th over, while Omarzai came back in the 42nd.
Omarzai's usage with the new ball was a welcome sight, but he's also someone who can bowl hard lengths in the middle overs. Strangely, Shahidi stuck to his spinners even though results weren't forthcoming and paid a heavy price.
#1 After Glenn Maxwell was incapacitated, Afghanistan bowled all the wrong deliveries
Glenn Maxwell was clearly strugging in the second half of his innings, with the physio doing far more running than him. He was upright in his stance, and his footwork seemed seriously hampered.
The logical thing to do would have been to make Maxwell reach for the ball by bowling it wide of his arc. Instead, Afghanistan fed him plenty of freebies on his hips and at his body, deliveries the Aussie all-rounder feasted on despite being in poor shape.
Afghanistan's lines and lengths were all over the place during the Maxwell-Cummins partnership. Yes, The Big Show did play arguably the greatest ODI knock of all time, but the Afghan bowlers didn't help their own cause.