Afghans consigned to another heroic defeat

When Najibullah Zadran slammed his bat into his pads after a dozy run-out that consigned Afghanistan to defeat, it encapsulated all of his side’s frustration. Once again they had produced a performance of verve that made their readiness for regular top-level international competition palpable. Once again the result was the same.

Match report: England survive scare against Afghanistan

Rare is the day when Afghanistan are granted the chance to play elite cricket nations. They have played a meagre three bilateral matches – T20Is and ODIs combined – against the leading nine countries in their entire history, even though Afghanistan have had ODI and T20I status since 2009.

So when they are afforded an opportunity, Afghanistan need to make it count. Reaching the main stage of the World Twenty20 was critical; the manner in which they did it, eviscerating Zimbabwe by 59 runs, even more so. Since November, Afghanistan have played Zimbabwe 15 times, across ODI and T20I cricket, and won 11 times, proving themselves to be better than the weakest Test nation.

Yet Afghanistan cricket remains restless, determined that besting Zimbabwe will not be the summit of their achievements. Battle-hardened by their three matches in the first stage, and with a bowling attack fusing pace and spin that seemed ideally suited to Indian conditions, Afghanistan did not merely hope to beat a Test nation in the Super 10 phase. They expected to.

And with good reason. Each of Afghanistan’s Super 10 matches have shown them to be a side eminently capable of pushing cricket’s elite. They produced a shoddy performance with bat, ball and in the field against Sri Lanka, yet only Tillakaratne Dilshan’s brilliance deprived them of victory. Against South Africa, Afghanistan conceded 209, yet the chutzpah of Mohammad Shahzad gave the Proteas cold sweats about losing consecutive games after topping 200. In Shahzad’s analysis, only the non-selection of Dale Steyn – “I love playing Dale Steyn because Dale Steyn is not dangerous,” he said – deprived Afghanistan of victory; more prosaically, twice dropping AB de Villiers was critical, perhaps match-defining.

For much of its existence Afghanistan’s game with England had the air of being a seminal day for the side: their first ever victory over one of cricket’s main eight sides. England, as is their wont against Associate sides, were stumbling. While England lost five wickets for 15, the ghosts of humiliations past – by Zimbabwe's Eddo Brandes in the 1992 World Cup; by Ireland's Kevin O’Brien in Bangalore in 2011; and the double Dutch debacles in the 2009 and 2014 WT20s – were rearing their heads once more.

There was more than a hint of self-destruction to England’s collapse, embodied by Ben Stokes bottom-edging a long hop onto his stumps and knocking himself to the floor in the process. Yet Afghanistan oozed vim: Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan bowled scarcely a ball out of place, choking England on a slow pitch.

When England had succumbed to 57-6, Afghanistan should have aimed to skittle England for under 100. Instead they mislaid their attacking instincts. Skipper Asghar Stanikzai fielded just four men in the circle, and at its very edge. The upshot was that Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan, and then David Willey, were free to rebuild with no risk.

Afghanistan had some misfortune, too. How they will reflect on Moeen Ali’s reprieve in the 18^th over: he should have been given out lbw, leaving England 102-8; instead, he and Willey ravaged Amir Hamza for 25 runs in the 19^th over of the innings.

Still, a target of 143 to beat England is a challenge that Afghanistan would have accepted before the first ball of the game. Now, in a flurry of loose shots, Afghanistan seemed overwhelmed. They lost three early wickets, and seemed in a state of panic from the moment Mohammad Shahzad, as a player of his impetuosity inevitably will, was snared in the first over.

The identity of Afghanistan’s number five further betrayed Afghanistan’s panic. Rare is the pinch-hitter who emerges at 13-3, but one was identified when Khan walked out to bat. He played a couple of enterprising uppercuts, but missed far more than he hit. Khan did not score from 13 of his 20 balls, which is a lamentably high dot ball percentage.

The upshot was that Nabi and Samiullah Shenwari, together with Shahzad Afghanistan’s three best players, were marooned at six and seven, and left with far too much to do. Both are players adept at building innings, and needed to bat in the top five to maximise Afghanistan’s chances of success. Even more bizarrely, Khan’s promotion pushed Shafiqullah, playing as a specialist batsman down to number nine. Like Khan, Shafiqullah faced 20 balls, but he scored 35 runs rather than 15 thrashing furiously until the very end.

It was not enough. Afghanistan had created another chance for themselves to topple one of cricket’s elite; and had floundered once again. And there was no sense that England had beaten them, simply that Afghanistan had again conspired to defeat themselves.

As Shapoor Zadran, Afghanistan’s distraught number eleven, trudged off the field when defeat was confirmed, he refused to remove his helmet, keeping it on as he shook hands with the England players and returned, head bowed, to the changing room. It was as if Shapoor sensed that to remove his helmet would be to accept the finality of defeat. He knew the futility of keeping it on, but could not accept what he would see when he finally removed it: the spectre of another defeat that would be termed heroic, a label that means well but has the whiff of condescension attached. It is a label that Afghanistan barely want to escape, but will not truly be able to do so until they best a leading nation on a global stage. The heroic defeat is a currency that Afghan cricket does not accept.