T20 World Cup: Jonathan Trott slams semifinal pitch | Parami News

Afghanistan, South Africa’s semifinal opponent in this T20 World Cup, were criticized by their coach, Jonathan Trott, for using a pitch that was not appropriate for this game.

Afghanistan was dismissed for 56 runs at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad. In terms of providing sideways seam and inconsistent bounce on the pitch to players batting – it was nothing short of a nightmare.

South Africa had trouble though they eventually chased down the score by 8.5 overs.

According to PTI at a press conference after match, Trott said “No way! That is not the kind of pitch you will want to have a semi-final match of world cup on, simple.”

According to him, the former England batsman explained that there is no batting left in it because of what happened during this game.

“It should be even contest at times. I’m not saying it should be absolutely flat with no spin and no seam movement- I’m saying you shouldn’t have batsmen worrying about going forward,” he said.

“That said players in footwork need confidence while hitting through or playing their shots. It is about attacking; it’s about scoring runs and taking wickets; it’s not about survival,” he comment.

Throughout the competition venue provided pacers with swing and seam as well as spinners with turn.

Only once did a team batting first fail to score more than 100 runs in five World Cup matches held at Tarouba. West Indies defeated New Zealand who defended themselves valiantly as co-hosts making 149/6 against them

He noted: “If we got ourselves into position where we bowled very, very well and opposition bowled well then that’s fine- then it’s all about adjusting yourself as well.”

“But if misbehaving ball starts rolling…we would’ve definitely had an interesting second half also if we’d bowled straight as South Africa did,” he said.

However, the Afghan players themselves seemed exhausted to pick up on it.

For their first ever world cup semi-final clash, Afghanistan went through turbulent and emotionally charged last forty hours

In a crucial match which ended in the early hours of Tuesday in Kingstown when it rained, they beat Bangladesh by eight thrilling runs. After that there was a four-hour delay to travel to Tarouba. Even at toss, captain Rashid Khan admitted that he hadn’t slept a lot.

Trott revealed: “We only got back to hotel at three o’clock then we had to leave at eight o’clock- five hours later so we didn’t get much sleep so the guys obviously were very try and a lot to process really emotionally physically. So all new territory for the guys.”

However Trott admitted this was because of a superior South African Team.

But we were aware of the calendar; thus that’s not a good reason. When you go in World Cups or tournaments, it’s impossible to have everything your own way, and sometimes one needs to fight and play against odds. Which you’ve done at times and very proud of that. But it’s no, not why we didn’t win today.

“South Africa bowled well, employed the conditions, and demonstrated our children what it’s capable of. But this night just didn’t go our way.”

The 43-year-old expected that the semi-final loss would be a learning curve for a team that had come leaps and bounds in the last five years.

“…we’ve obviously got one better than the previous (ODI) World Cup in November and it’s just about taking it step by step and hopefully we learn from today, the batters certainly.

“What does it take to play international cricket especially against South African bowling attack on a pitch. Which is perhaps not high scoring runs friendly? We couldn’t find a way today.”

Two openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) and Ibrahim Zadran (2). Who were also Afghanistan’s top run scorers during this competition failed again to impose themselves on oppositions putting too much pressure on them because middle order hadn’t scored any runs prior tournament.

“Nobody else has got runs. We need to find a reason for that,” Trott said.