While Afghanistan came close to a famous win over Sri Lanka in their Asia Cup 2023 Group-stage fixture, in the end it was a matter of so close but yet so far for them. While Afghanistan needed to win within a certain number of overs for them to qualifty for the Super Fours, their head coach Jonathan Trott revealed that the side was in fact not aware of all the Net run rate permutations which played a part in them being denied a place in the Super Fours round of the competition.
Notably, Afghanistan were eliminated from the continental tournament after they succumbed to a defeat by three runs against Sri Lanka. They needed 292 to win but the condition was that they had to chase down the total in 37.1 overs for them to head to the next round of the event. However, there were other permutations too like had they managed to level the scores with Sri Lanka in that stipulated time and then hit a six o reached 297 in 38.1 overs that would have been sufficient for them too but Trott said that they weren't aware of all the permutations.
"We were never communicated those calculations. All we were communicated was 37.1 we had to win in," Trott said
"We weren’t communicated about if we got, it was 295 or whatever it was… 297 in 38.1? That was never communicated with us," he added.
"I don't think there's one reason we lost the game," Trott said at the post-match press conference.
"There are areas of the game we could have done better [in] and that goes for today's game and the one against Bangladesh. We got some things horribly wrong in a few areas and it's cost us. It'd be nice if we'd bowled them out a bit cheaper. But it wasn't to be."
Meanwhile, Afghanistan's analyst Mohsin Sheikh also shared his views on social media.
"We were clearly confirmed from operations and match referee that we could win but not qualify past the 37.1 mark," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on the morning after the match.
"It is easy to be key board warriors and abuse yet not appreciate the brand of cricket we played," he said.