T20 World Cup 2021: “We wanted to chase because of the dew” – Mohammad Nabi 

Mohammad Nabi-led Afghanistan had a 66-run defeat against India in their 2021 T20 World Cup encounter in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Nabi revealed that he wanted to chase after winning the toss because of the dew factor impacting the earlier matches of the tournament.

After being invited to bat, India piled up 210 for two, the highest total in the tournament so far. Afghanistan, who usually prefer batting first, altered their plan, and it backfired due to the lack of dew.

“We wanted to bat second because of the dew, and the wicket looked really good for batting. Yeah, there wasn’t much dew, but the wicket was very good for batting, and India batted really well and put our bowlers under pressure,” said Mohammad Nabi in the post-match presentation.

Trying to be overly aggressive in their batting, Afghanistan were reduced to 69 for five in the 12th over. Later Mohammad Nabi (35 off 32), and Karim Janat (42* off 22) led their recovery to reduce the deficit.

Talking about the batting approach, Mohammad Nabi added:

“Not always (trying to be overaggressive with the bat). We try to rotate the strike in the middle overs. Today we didn’t do that well and were put under pressure due to the early wickets.”

Afghanistan eventually managed 144 for seven in their 20 overs.

Hope to beat New Zealand: Mohammad Nabi

Mohammad Nabi hopes that Afghanistan will beat New Zealand in their final Group match on Sunday. This will ensure they sneak past the other teams in order to secure a semi-final qualification.

With Pakistan already qualifying for the semi-finals, Afghanistan and New Zealand are still ahead of India in terms of being favorites for securing qualification.

India are placed in fourth spot in Group 2 with two points and a net run rate (NRR) of 0.073. Afghanistan are still in second spot with four points with a NRR of 1.481. Meanwhile New Zealand find themselves in third spot with an NRR of 0.82.

India and New Zealand have played three matches, while Afghanistan have played four. India next play Scotland in Dubai on Friday.