Winning will help Afghanistan progression - Inzamam
Having threatened to pull off a win over a big team in their first three
matches of the Super 10 stage, Afghanistan finally went ahead and did
it against the group-topping West Indies in Nagpur.
Afghanistan's batting coach, praised his team's self-belief, and
reiterated the call for more opportunities to play against the Full
Members.
"All our previous matches have been close," Inzamam said. "There haven't
been one-sided matches, it's not like a team makes 200 against us and
we are all out for 100 or 150. The team has been fighting, and the
belief was always there.
"But Afghanistan haven't had that exposure of winning against big teams.
The finishing point has not been seen yet. But now that we have won
this, it will definitely help. And we had a strong belief that if we can
come so close, we can win too. Today it has happened. We could have won
against England, there was a close game against Sri Lanka too. So we
knew we had the potential to win, but you still need that win. The more
we play against big teams, the more we'll learn, and can perform even
better."
One of the players who displayed strong self-belief was the left-arm
spinner Amir Hamza. Having been hit for 25 runs in one over in his last
match, against England, he took the new ball, bowled three of his four
overs in the Powerplay, and finished with figures of 4-0-9-1.
"He's one of our main bowlers," Inzamam said. "Sometimes we need to make
changes in the XI as per the conditions, and as per the player's form.
But he is a seasoned player and a terrific bowler. In the last match, he
conceded 25 runs in one over, but he didn't let it affect his
confidence. Today, at a crucial point, he bowled well."
Sent in to bat, Afghanistan posted 123 for 7. Inzamam felt the total was
perhaps 15 or 20 runs below par given the conditions, but said the team
made it up with their bowling and fielding.
"If you see, chases have been difficult on this ground," he said. "Even
in the last game, West Indies could chase 123 against South Africa only
in the last over. India also played earlier and were all out for 79
[against New Zealand]. So it's not easy to get runs in the second
innings on this ground.
"And we knew that, so it's not like we had started out thinking we
should get 160-170. Our target was 140 to 150, we thought we could put
pressure [on West Indies] if we had that total. So we thought we fell
maybe 15-20 runs short, but I think the boys fielded excellently. They
caught well and saved 10-15 runs on the field. That covered the runs we
couldn't make while batting."
West Indies were playing their second match of the tournament in Nagpur,
while Afghanistan - who had won three out of three first-round matches
at the venue - were playing their fourth. Inzamam said Afghanistan's
knowledge of the conditions gave them an edge on the day.
"We thought we knew this ground better than West Indies, we had already
played three matches here, practised a lot here. We had an idea about
the pitch and the ground, and that helped us mentally as well as on the
ground. The bowlers knew how to bowl on the pitch, the batsmen had an
idea, and we spoke about this in our team meeting yesterday also - that
we definitely know these conditions better than West Indies."
Inzamam has been part of the Afghanistan backroom since October 2015.
Asked how long he intended to stay on in the role, he said he would sit
with the Afghanistan Cricket Board at the end of his current term and
take a mutual decision.
"I am with them for a year now, so I'm looking at [finishing] that
first. After a year is up, we have to decide whether they want to keep
me or not too. It has to be both ways. I have five-six months left and,
inshallah, they will go well."
