Jonathan Trott speaks on significance of Aghanistan’s win over Pakistan

After taking Pakistan to the limit in some of their previous clashes, Afghanistan finally got over the line against the ‘Men in Green’ in their eighth attempt as Hashmatullah Shahidi and Co. won a crucial ODI World Cup clash in Chennai on Monday, October 23 by eight wickets.

Head coach Jonathan Trott opined that this inspirational win will motivate people in Afghanistan to take up cricket. The former England batter also lavished praise on the fitness levels exhibited by his players during the game against Pakistan.

“I think it just shows the amount of talent in the side for the country again, as when we were fortunate enough to beat England. It inspires another generation of players to pick up a cricket bat and a cricket ball, work on their fielding and their fitness. We see that the guys are very fit today and fielding for 50 overs and then Ibrahim [Zadran] batting for 35, close to 40 overs is a great, great credit to him,” Trott said at his post-match press conference.

At least we’ve given them some moments of happiness tonight: Naveen-ul-Haq

Naveen-ul-Haq said that the monumental win against Pakistan in the World Cup will help the Afghan people rejoice after having gone through some rough times in the recent past.

“It does mean a lot to the people of our country back home. As you know, the situation back home…The earthquake also hit [in Herat] a few days ago. So, there’s not a lot of happiness in the country without cricket. So, at least we’ve given them some moments of happiness tonight,” Naveen said at the mixed-zone media interaction.

Earlier in the day, the ‘Blue Tigers’ restricted Pakistan to 282/7 in 50 overs. Noor Ahmad, who replaced Fazalhaq Farooqi, stood out with a three-for. In reply, the talismanic opening duo of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran stitched a 130-run partnership before Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah closed out the match with an over to spare.