9 November - Ahmedabad - Afghanistan Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi pre-match press conference

[Reporter:]

If you could just tell us how the last couple of days been like after that defeat against Australia, how has been the mood in the camp and how was the whole day today? I'm sure you guys had an eye on the proceedings in Bangalore as well.

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

Yeah, that loss, was very disappointing for us as a team. Everyone was disappointed because you know sometimes these kind of things happen and it happened with us. It was hard, like we were not expecting win (for Australia). They were 7 down and Maxwell played the innings of his life, I think. So, we were not expecting that he will win the game from us after that seven wickets. But still, it's part of the game, part of the life. In cricket, anything can happen. And for us as a team, that loss gives us a lot of lessons. And importantly, these things happens, but the good thing is you have to learn from it. It gives you learning, and we will try our best to learn from the last game.

[Reporter:]

Just to build on from that question, I'm interested to know, it must have been a heavy atmosphere in the dressing room. Who kind of lightened the mood? Who kind of made it light and bringing the focus on tomorrow's match and what was said after that?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

As I said that it was not easy as a team for all of us. The way it happened with the team, with us, not easy. But still, we are in the World Cup, and we have one important match tomorrow of this World Cup. And as a team, we discussed about it yesterday that we have to now move forward and not think too much about what happened. Because if you think about it, it will, as a team, your team's morale will go down with that. As I said that we will learn from it and now it's the part of the history, it's gone. We have to move forward and think about tomorrow's game and we will try as a team to come back stronger and win it from there.

[Reporter:]

You’re from a country that is often in the headlines for negative reasons, but you've given Afghans and Afghanistan lots of reasons to be proud of you in this tournament. How does that make you feel, you and your players?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

As a team we feel proud, we are happy with what we did in this World Cup. But as a captain, I wanted and I expected more. We should have done better. Especially in the last game, if we beat Australia that would have been a good achievement for us. But now, still we have one game and if we finish that well, we still have a chance for semifinal. So, we are hopeful that anything can happen. We are looking forward and still with what happened, we are feeling proud as a team and as a nation.

[Reporter:]

As you said you would have expected better things, you were in a good position against New Zealand, you had almost defeated Australia, but a few dropped catches in both the games cost you the games. Has there been any discussion on this in the dressing room?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

Yeah, when you lose, you know, it's a lot of negative things and a lot of things happening in the ground, you have to think about that. In this World Cup, I think one part that we are not good enough in, is the fielding, you know, like we dropped so many catches. And in New Zealand game also, that dropped catches hurt us. Especially last game with Australia, that dropped the chances that we had. That was the reason, if we took that, so the result and scenario would be far different than now.

But still, I say that everything that is happening in cricket, you have to learn from it. And especially the catches that we missed, now we have to improve on our fielding going forward to take the Afghanistan cricket as a best fielding side.

[Reporter:]

You've only played South Africa once before in an ODI and they've gone pretty well at this tournament apart from maybe the last game- what are you expecting from them? What kind of challenge do you think they'll pose and what areas of weakness? Do you think you can exploit?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

I know they are a good side and they play quality cricket. But coming into this World Cup, every team is a challenge for you. And every game is a big challenge. Like coming to the World Cup, it's not easy for the teams to come and play the World Cup. So, tomorrow is one of the challenges that we are facing. We faced eight games. That was also a challenge for us as a team. Now, tomorrow is South Africa, it will be challenging for us. They are a good side, they are a good batting side, and also, they have a good balling attack.

So, we have to not worry about that because for us it will be our own strength and our own quality of cricket that we are playing, we are focusing on that and tomorrow our focus will be the same that what we can do better if we do well, we can beat any team , yeah so tomorrow's focus will be that.

[Reporter:]

Do you have any game plan to defeat South Africa after 4 successful wins?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

Yes, we are planning for every team.But do you mean I should be sharing the plans here?

[Reporter:]

Ajay Jadeja is the mentor of the team - How much support do you get?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

Yeah. He's part of the team. He's part of the coaching staff, so he's working hard with us. And as I mentioned before also, he's one of the positive guys I have ever seen, so he is always trying to give us positive thoughts about the game and he knows about the conditions here so we take that experience from him.

[Reporter:]

Just looking forward, life beyond the World Cup as well. To continue improving in the 50-over game, do you find, I mean, it's a weird situation where you've gotten really good now at 50-overs. But when we look at the next cycle, the number of 50-over games are starting to reduce. So how does a country like Afghanistan, a team like Afghanistan continue to improve?

[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]

I think for that question, we have cricket board and management. So, we are hoping that they take a lot of series with other teams. And the Champions Trophy is also ahead. There will be cricket of 50 overs, I’m expecting that. I hope that ICC also make a good call on it because 50-over cricket is also important. Right now, too many leagues, too many T20 cricket. I think with that, 50 overs and test cricket is more important. So, if we have that games, we will definitely improve more and more. And we are expecting our cricket board and ICC to give us more matches for our improvement.