Champions Trophy 2025: Coach Jonathan Trott did not mince any words as he conceded that Afghanistan were poor in all three departments in their defeat to South Africa in Karachi on Friday. Afghanistan next face England and Australia as their semi-final chances look bleak.
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00:00Not an ideal start for the Champions Trophy. What went wrong today?
00:20We let them get a few too many. We had them in a decent position but we didn't get any early wickets unfortunately.
00:36I think they played really well. A combination of perhaps not being on it with the ball as much as we'd like to have been.
00:44But I also think they played really well. I think Rickleton's in really good form and Vuvuma played nice as well.
00:50They set the game up and perhaps got a few too many on that wicket. I think we should have limited them a little bit more if we'd bowled a bit better.
01:01And then chasing. We obviously didn't have a good start and to chase down a total like that you sort of need a good solid platform.
01:12I think there were 104 after 20 but there were one down. We'd lost quite a few more wickets at that point.
01:18So to set up and chase and sort of give you the platform to chase that. So from start to finish we need to be better.
01:30Of course a lot of support for Afghanistan fans here and in the non-Pakistan match.
01:43So how players were enjoying this atmosphere and also two coming games against Australia and England in Lahore.
01:49And of course Afghanistan known to produce some good results on the spin wickets in Asia.
01:54So looking forward to those two matches after this early setback. Thank you.
01:59Yeah obviously support is great. I think the guys enjoy support wherever they go.
02:04Certainly in the UAE or here. So hopefully we'll get more of that in Lahore and it'll spur the guys on.
02:10And yeah I think obviously it's pretty clear what we need to do now. We know we didn't play well enough today.
02:16We know we've got to pull our socks up and play a lot better against England on the 26th and against Australia on the 28th.
02:24Between over number 11 to 40 Afghanistan used to build their running quite well.
02:30But today they just scored 161 runs and lost 6 wickets.
02:34So don't you really think that Afghanistan needs some stability in the middle of a leg which they do in the World Cup 2023.
02:41So they need that same momentum today because wicket was not offering too much for the ballers as well.
02:47But they are using short ball again Afghanistan. So how do you summarize these sort of things?
02:52I think the openers need to set up the game as well with the top three or four batters.
02:59And I think within their dismissals there are a few soft dismissals.
03:03I think a lot of dot balls early on. I think the pitch sort of at this evening sort of aided the South African bowlers.
03:11And I think they bowled really well and made it quite hard work for us.
03:14But there are a lot of soft dismissals there for me and something I'll be chatting to the batters about.
03:20And how to go about it a little bit better perhaps for the rest of the tournament.
03:27Hi Jonathan. Going forward like you know it's back to back games.
03:31Any particular area that you would like to address?
03:35All three. Bowling, batting and fielding.
03:40Pardon?
03:41Any particular area that you would like to address?
03:50I think we could do better with the new ball. Take wickets. We need to take wickets in the power play.
03:55Make it easier for our spinners coming on and bowling at newer batters.
03:59Or batters who aren't set coming out of the power play.
04:04Fielding. There's a few mis-fields. And we need to be a little bit sharper in certain areas.
04:08And then today the batting as I said already. A few soft dismissals under pressure.
04:13And things we need to get better and do better on the 26th.
04:19Hi Jonathan. This was probably the first time Afghanistan were playing in Karachi.
04:23So you guys have played all around the world in Sharjah and in India.
04:28But like how was it playing over here?
04:31Like a great crowd turned up and it wasn't a Pakistan match.
04:35So how are the players feeling and how are they playing here?
04:38Really good. As I said, I've been asked the question already.
04:43Enjoy any support. Whether we're in Sharjah or whether we're in Abu Dhabi.
04:48So to get the sort of home crowd advantage like we did tonight is awesome.
04:52And we certainly hope that will be the case in Lahore for both our games.
04:58Do you think Afghanistan have some issues in medal order which need to be solved?
05:09Hi. Do you think Afghanistan have issues in medal order, especially in batting?
05:14Do you think it needs to be solved?
05:17Well yeah. I think any time you get bowled out for just over 200 chasing 300,
05:24you're going to ask the medal order, especially when one player gets 90 batting at number four.
05:29You sometimes look around and if somebody had batted with him
05:33and been able to build a partnership like we've spoken about,
05:37we could have got ourselves close to the title today.
05:40So that's the most disappointing thing is one person showed us exactly how it could be done
05:45and get us close if there had just been a few guys who had a similar day to him.
05:52So yeah, it's everyone's responsibility.
06:00Jonathan, nowadays we see a lot of players play franchise cricket together
06:04and then they play it against each other.
06:06So what do you say?
06:07This thing is helpful, players knowing each other or knowing their strengths and weaknesses,
06:12or you think that this franchise thing has just made things more difficult
06:17for teams playing against each other?
06:21I'm not quite sure whether it's a pro or a con really.
06:28But one thing I do think is it's quite difficult to get that rivalry going
06:34when last week some players were playing in the same team together
06:38or this week they're playing against each other.
06:40So it makes it a little bit confusing for some players.
06:44But for me we've got to make sure that when we play against England on the 26th
06:48it's 11 versus 11 and we're going out there to beat them.
06:54Whereas today a lot of these players have played together in franchises in the SA20.
07:02So it's always tricky where the line is between rivalry or friendships on or off the field.
07:08But I think the way that we play the game is the right way
07:10and I don't think we've ever really got that wrong side of how I think it should be.