Afghanistan hero Shenwari on 'one big shout' and the dream to beat a Test nation

Afghanistan skipper Samiullah Shenwari was speaking with the media after his team’s famous win over Scotland. You can also listen to the full press conference in the audio widget above. Q. Can you just sort of take us back to what you were thinking when obviously you came in at two down, seeing all the wickets fall. What was going through your mind all throughout? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: First of all, I would say I did my job, and my job was just staying on the wicket till the end. The other players - some of them didn’t take responsibility, that’s why they’re out. So I was just telling them just stay on the wicket, and the wicket was not moving. So I can say that we got an early wicket again from Javed, that’s a big point. The wicket was gone, so we got the pressure, and then the captain and keeper out. So my role was to be in there till 50th over, and just take the last five overs for hitting - so that was my point. [caption id=“attachment_2123409” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shenwari turned in a man of the match performance against Scotland. AFP[/caption] Q. Could you also talk about how you felt when you got caught there on the boundary? Because I saw you, you waited for a while, and they were checking the fielders, how many were in, and how many were out, it must have been very intense? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: I didn’t check. From the outside they were shouting to stay on the wicket. So I had probably hit the shot, but I don’t know why it didn’t cross the boundary. So it was like a bad shot for me. Q. No, the winning. The feeling. It must have been obviously – SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: Yeah, when we won, we shouted. Like one shout, but big shout. Then coach came and then (asked us to) calm down and said it’s just one match, and still we have a World Cup (to play). Two more matches to win to get there to that stage. Q. Did you ever imagine Afghanistan winning the World Cup would be possible ten years ago? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: I think there was nothing before. You can look 10 or eight years ago, there was nothing in Afghanistan. But now you can say the streets, schools, everywhere you go - it’s just cricket and cricket, so maybe in next ten years maybe we can do (more). Q. Is your dream now to play a Test Match? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: Yes. Yes, we have a dream to play a Test Match, and we’re looking forward to playing more with The test nations. Q. Yesterday Javed Ahmadi was talking about Afghanistan looking to beat full member nations, that is the dream. Today you were almost about to lose to Scotland. Did it worry you at some stage that this was not supposed to happen? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: I can say this so it’s happened. It’s happened so you can’t say why it happened, so it’s part of cricket. Yeah, we’re looking forward to beat a Test nation. We have a dream, and we missed it yesterday against Sri Lanka. So thank God we won today, however we won with one wicket or ten wickets, it’s still a win. Q. Just going back to the Asia Cup. Last year you came into a similar situation. That time you played entirely different innings. Today was completely different innings. How many type of games do you have? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: I have any kind of game. I can hit it. I can stay on the wicket. So my team needs me to stay on the wicket, and they believe me that I can do, and I proved to them, and they’re happy, and I will go to coach to support me in the match. They were talking to me - saying if you can stay on the wicket, you can do anything. So that was the main point, and I did it. Q. You’re obviously a long way from home. But there is a fairly good bunch of Afghan supporters there in the crowd. Were you aware of them? If so, how much of a boost was that to see the flag and the noise? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: Yeah, when we see the crowd, we get more happy, and we feel that we have more company - when we get a wicket, we get a boundary. So we get a shout, so we feel good. Q. I was going to say, how do you refocus now? Obviously a tough couple of games coming up? SAMIULLAH SHENWARI: We’re looking forward to the next match with Australia, and hopefully, hopefully we’ll give them a tough time and we will not give up easy. So we’re looking forward to giving them a tough time and looking forward to winning the match.