Moments of fleeting brilliance with the bat not enough for Afghanistan

[Viceroy]

There were two dreamy straight drives from Noor Ali Zadran early on in Taunton, one off Matt Henry, the other off Trent Boult. Hashmatullah Shahidi laced a crisp cover drive off Colin de Grandhomme later on, a gorgeous back foot punch for four by Najibullah Zadran off Jimmy Neesham followed and, ridiculously, an on-drive from number 11 Hamid Hassan to rival any of them. Hazratullah Zazai's early swipe for six off Henry won't win many beauty contests but went out of the ground nonetheless. Moments of class from Afghanistan yet far, far too fleeting amongst the ordinariness. This was their third poor batting display from three attempts. They have failed to bat more than 41.1 overs in any game. Afghanistan's warm-up win against Pakistan, chasing down 262, has thrown everyone off course. It was a cool, calm run chase, secured with relative ease despite a late wobble. In their last proper ODI before the World Cup, they made more than 300 against Ireland. Good, solid efforts both and more of the same was expected. They have resembled a deck of cards since. Moments of exquisite timing or shots which make you sit up and take notice are all fine and dandy. Who doesn't love a Zazai slog over mid-wicket for six? Well, Henry probably doesn't but you get the drift. Yet these one-off moments of class aren't enough. They aren't enough to get Afghanistan to competitive totals. They aren't enough to give their much-vaunted spinners something to bowl at.

Only Shahidi, last man out for 59, offered much of the good stuff today. It took him 20 balls to get off the mark. After he faced his 24th delivery, with just one run to his name, he was loudly heckled by someone in the crowd. The gist of the sledge was that he needed to get on with it. But why would you get on with it when you're pretty confident that your team could do something daft at any time like, say, lose three wickets for no runs? No wonder he was taking his time. The worst thing about this effort was that Afghanistan got the good start they wanted after being reduced to 57 for five by Australia and 77 for five against Sri Lanka in their previous two matches. They were 66 without loss today and then lost three wickets for no runs, wiping out all that good work.

They lost their fifth and sixth wickets inside three balls, too. In all, they lost ten for 106. New Zealand bowled well enough on a pitch which offered the seamers a little but there were some terribly meek shots from Afghanistan. Noor Ali was caught down the leg-side off a Lockie Ferguson lifter when a square-leg and leg-gully had just been put in place, signalling the ball was going to be directed short and at the body. To then glove the next delivery, pitched in that very manner, was naive. Later, captain Gulbadin Naib flashed at a ball that otherwise would have been a wide and was caught behind. Then, to compound his error, he reviewed it. They heard the edge in Bristol. Just after the second rain break, Mohammad Nabi, who has scored just 27 runs in the tournament to date, tried to play an unwise dab and nicked it. Three balls later, Najibullah, who batted well in the previous two games, was also caught behind, playing a ball from Jimmy Neesham as if Joel Garner had delivered it. Then Rashid Khan headbutted a length ball which cannoned into the stumps and Ikram Alikhil plopped a gentle dobber from de Grandhomme to point.