We ran into a freight-train, we were out-bullied: Afghanistan coach after defeat against Aussies

“We ran into a freight train today. We were out-skilled, out-bullied, if you want to put it that way,” said Andy Moles, the Afghanistan coach, on Wednesday (March 4) night, shortly after Australia had crushed his team by 275 runs at the WACA ground.

“They were exceptional, and we came up short, and we hold our hands up, we’ve got to get better, no excuses.”

Australia amassed a World Cup record 417 for 6 after being asked to bat first, on the back of David Warner’s brilliant 178 and near centuries from Steven Smith and Glenn Maxwell.

The bowling unit then fired collectively to send Afghanistan packing for 142 for the most comprehensive and one-sided of victories. Afghanistan had begun reasonably well with the ball before getting carried away with the pace and extra bounce in particular that the WACA strip offers. Moles admitted that he had spoken at length to the bowlers about what lengths to bowl on this surface, adding that in the heat of battle, the bowlers had lost their disciplines.

“I thought we bowled very well at Warner for the first five, six overs. But we didn’t persist with bowling the same areas and unfortunately we got short. We spoke about not to bowl short, and then the rest is history. Once it got away, we just couldn’t get the momentum back again. Yes, we do miss Mirwais (Ashraf, the medium pacer who has returned home after sustaining an injury) inside, but the guys are good enough and have showed in the previous games that we can bowl better areas for longer than what we did do today. So that in itself is a disappointment.”

At the same time, Moles wasn’t too critical of his bowlers. “They’re not the first group of bowlers that have come here - there’s many teams (that) come to Perth and unfortunately fall into the trap of bowling shorter and shorter as they see the ball carrying through to the ‘keeper at head height,” he pointed out.

“We did discuss it. We’ve been here in October and November, and the guys had the opportunity to bowl on this wicket, and it’s just disappointing and sad that we went away from the lengths that we started off on. Unfortunately when you bowl shorter, you take out your fielders in front of the wicket because it’s going square of the wicket, and we spoke before the game about the need, if we leak runs, they have to be down on the ground and not square of the wicket. We’ve got to make sure that we are disciplined in the areas we bowl. They don’t do it on purpose, obviously, but it’s disappointing. We’ve worked hard in the nets not to do it, and as a bowling group, we’re disappointed they didn’t execute the skills that they did against Sri Lanka and Scotland.”

Moles was all praise for Maxwell, who walked in at 274 for 2 with 12 and a half overs left, and bludgeoned his way to 88 off just 39 deliveries, with a fair few reverse hits that left the opposition shell-shocked. “There’s not too many people who play - I know there’s one or two, but from a learning point of view, hopefully we don’t see it too often in the future because it was some quite special batting,” Moles said of Maxwell’s knock.

“He’s come into some criticism I notice in the past of playing it (the reverse sweep) too early. I think he waited one ball today. But he’s obviously a very special player, and as all coaches and captains want, the innings was set up for him by not losing early wickets and he could come in and express himself. He played quite beautifully and put a lot of pressure on the bowlers.”

“From a learning point of view, we’ve got to learn to be calmer and execute areas, but when people are playing those type of shots which they’ve probably never come across before - they may have watched it on TV or a video, we’ve spoken about the fact that Maxwell does play those shots - but when it actually happens, you’ve got to react to what happens. Hopefully, should they come across the chance to bowl to Maxwell again, they’ll do better.”

Afghanistan also struggled with the bat when up against Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson, the two fastest bowlers on view on the day. “I think all the associates are going to say we need to play more cricket, we need to play more games, but the horrible truth is that it is the truth,” said Moles.

“How can you get used to playing against people bowling 150 plus, especially on a surface that - it’s got more pace and bounce than probably any other cricket wicket in the world probably. To play against that and get used to it, you have to play against it. We use golf balls on the nets to get extra bounce, we use synthetic balls that bounce more, we’ve used bowling machines, we’ve done a lot of preparation for this game, but the players need to play against people that bowl at that speed with that aggression, with that excellence more often so that we can get better at playing at it.”

Next up for Afghanistan are tough challenges against England and New Zealand, and he said it was important for his team not to get down on themselves after this embarrassing defeat.

“I’ll be doing my best to make sure they don’t go into their shells. I keep telling them they must express themselves and play with the freedom that Afghanistan cricket has been known for, but obviously we have to temper that around getting over your 10 or 12 balls and some of the guys didn’t get into that mode tonight,” he pointed out.

“New Zealand especially have got off to a great start, winning all their games, they’re playing at home. They’re full of confidence. But we’ll be working very hard between now and New Zealand.

They’ve got an exceptional bowling attack in (Tim) Southee and (Trent) Boult and backed up by the other guys, and we have to make sure that we are ready for what we know is going to be a very tough examination. I just said to the guys, playing quick bowling is about character, and we need to show more character when we’re up against it.”

Originally published on Wisden India