MUMBAI: Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott was left to rue his side's sloppy fielding after a magnificent Glenn Maxwell double century handed his team a scarcely believable three-wicket loss on Tuesday night.
Afghanistan squandered a golden chance to grab Maxwell's scalp when Mujeeb Ur Rahman grassed a sitter in the 22nd over.
"Well, it's a case of we got ourselves into position and should have capitalised, obviously dropped two chances, and gave a person like Maxwell a chance. He's going to run with it, and he played with freedom and it gave a bit of momentum back to them. I thought it was a spectacular innings, a world-class innings. But, yeah, we certainly helped him along the way," Trott said.
The Afghanistan coach hoped that Maxwell's relentless assault would teach his boys the importance of grabbing the chances that world-class batsmen offer. "You give any world-class player two lives; he's going to hurt you."
He felt that after Maxwell was dropped for the second time, as the ball fell between bowler Rashid Khan and skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan seemed to be "waiting for Maxwell to get out."
"When, unfortunately, the second catch went down, everyone just seemed to be waiting for Maxwell to get out. I didn't see a lot of encouragement or people cheering each other. It seemed like the attitude was a little bit, well, hopefully we'll still win. When you get an opportunity against a side like Australia, you've got to grab it. They're not going to just give it to you."
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