2019 World Cup | Naib urges batsmen to play full quota

Shahidi feels Afghanistan has in it to upset England

June 16, 2019 09:54 pm | Updated 10:00 pm IST - CARDIFF

Busy as usual: Quinton de Kock hit eight boundaries while scoring 68.

Busy as usual: Quinton de Kock hit eight boundaries while scoring 68.

Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib has urged his his batsmen to remain calm in the middle and play full 50 overs after yet another collapse saw it go down to South Africa meekly.

Put into bat under cloudy skies, Afghanistan negotiated the new ball brilliantly before losing five wickets for eight runs to eventually get all out for 125.

A sudden collapse is becoming a worrying trend for Afghanistan, which fell from 66 for no loss to 70 for four against New Zealand last week, and Naib asked his batsmen to control their nerves.

“Every time I’m saying to the batsman, control your nerves. We need calm cricket in the middle. Everyone is trying to put a score on the board so we have an opportunity to defend it,” said Naib.

“We did not play a 50-over game because we did not last. We have played a lot of cricket in the last few years but there is pressure on the team. We lost the toss so we did not take responsibility enough and that was the difference,” he said.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan batsman Hashmatullah Shahidi felt his team has enough quality to upset host England next week but the onus would be on the batsmen to score crucial runs.

“I can say if we play good cricket, we can beat any team but it depends on our batting,” said Shahidi.

“We are struggling. We have lost four in a row so we are disappointed. We tried to come back but things have not gone our way. We still have five games to go.

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