Modern international cricket can be a hard taskmaster. Its showpiece World Cup is a frightening stage for newcomers, which is what the debutants Afghanistan may have found out. Their top order collapse may have been caused by the sheer play on nerves of a global event.
Technically, the Afghanis, who play most of their cricket on slow and soft wickets, were all at sea on an Australian pitch which allowed the new ball, handled by the far more experienced Bangladeshis, to swing and seam around a bit.
While Afghan bowlers enjoyed the same kind of early conditions well to check the Bangladeshi top order, they lost control once the fight was taken to them by the seasoned Mushfiqur and Shakib-al-Hasan.
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Generally seen as a bowling side with strapping quicks bowling to a disciplined fullish length, the Afghan attack could not cope as batting conditions eased and a couple of determined performers decided to take the battle to the bowlers.
Speaking of battles, the romance of Afghan cricket has been built around the circumstances in which a national team has come up against the odds in a battle-torn and war-weary country beset by continuing direct international intervention in the Russians first and then the Americans. It has not helped that the Taliban brand of resistance based on terrorism has made the whole country into one big war zone.
In such conditions did the players of this new cricketing country – the first proper cricket match was probably played in 2001 in Afghanistan while the sport itself may be less than 20 years old at any level in the region – grow up that dodging grenades and bullets was as much a preoccupation as ducking bouncers on the cricket pitch.
Afghanis returning from exile in Pakistan caught the cricket bug and brought it back with them when they returned after the Taliban had been felled in a big way at the turn of the millennium.
To say cricket is already a symbol of Afghan national unity may be super romantic. Even so, the hype and expectations after the national team qualified for the World Cup in a very competitive set of preliminaries had brought things to a pitch on Wednesday when the Manuka Oval in the Australian capital became the arena for one of the most awaited World Cup debuts, by the highest rated ICC associate member team.
The Afghanis did not begin with a bang like the Zimbabweans did back in 1983 when they felled Australia. Their batting was exposed as fragile on the bouncier surfaces, but they showed grit, which should carry them some way, although qualifying for the last eight from here might prove difficult unless they hit a giant-killing spree. Going by their pronouncements, the Afghanis won’t be happy to have begun like this. They are very ambitious about cricket, which is their game of national hope.
