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Friday Sep 27, 2024
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Coach Graeme Hick’s Australia (1-1) will play Bangladesh (2-0) tomorrow. Australia needs victory and a strong run-rate to hope to qualify for the next stage.
“It’s a disappointing game for us today,” Zimbabwe-born Hick said, showing a flair for understatement.
“We’ve got to go out and beat Bangladesh and even then, it’s down to run-rate.
“Afghanistan played very well from the start. Their batsmen put our bowlers under a lot of pressure and we didn’t respond very well.” New-ball bowler Billy Stanlake took 1-11 off four overs and wasn’t considered fit enough to bowl his full allotment of 10 overs.
“In terms of the bowling, we’ve got a couple of guys who’ve brought injuries into this competition,” Hick said. “So there’s only a certain amount of workload they can do building into the next part of the tournament.
“That prompted a couple of selections. We wanted everyone to have a game in the tournament. We still felt with the squad we’ve got, that we had the side (to beat Afghanistan).”
Afghanistan’s innings was built around three half-centuries — Mohammad Mujtaba’s 75, which included five fours and tw0 sixes, Ihsanullah’s 63 and Hashmatullah Shaidi’s 57.
After losing opener Usman Ghani with just two runs on the board, man-of-the-match Mujtaba added 126 runs for the second wicket with Ihsanullah. Shaidi then anchored the innings and was the ninth batsman to be dismissed in the 50th over. Chasing 254 to win, Australia was bowled out for 217. Brisbane Heat BBL T20 batsman Ben McDermott, son of ex-Test paceman Craig McDermott, made a duck at No. 3 against Afghanistan. Fellow Queenslander James Bazley topscored with an unbeaten 54 after taking 3-69.
NSW teenager Jake Doran, who played against England in a tour match in Alice Springs in November, made 45.
Captain Jaron Morgan (47) and Damien Mortimer (43) also got starts.
Right-arm pace bowler Abdullah Adil claimed four wickets while left-arm orthodox Sharafuddin Ashraf chipped in with three.
Asked where Australia needed to improve, Hick said: “Batting and bowling.” “We’ll be playing our best eleven,” he added of the Bangladesh clash.
Afghanistan (1-1) qualified for the tournament by winning the Asian Cricket Council’s U19 Elite Cup.
Captain Nasir Jamal’s side will clash with winless Namibia tomorrow, making Australia’s game against Bangladesh a virtual knockout match.
“I don’t think many people expected us to defeat Australia but we did it and we did it convincingly,’ Jamal said. “We hope the people at home are enjoying the victory as much as we are. We play for our country and our people and we love to make them happy and proud.”
