ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 31, 2021

Pierre De Bruyn

Sheikh Zayed Stadium

Namibia

Post Match Media Conference

Afghanistan 160/5, Namibia 98/9

Q. Once Afghanistan got out, the gesture from Trumpelmann was amazing. What do you make of Asghar Afghan's contribution? He's been an ambassador to Afghanistan and his association to cricket in general.

PIERRE DE BRUYN: Look, it's inspiring everyone out there. He's had a fantastic career, and I'm sure that every cricketer in the world would like to finish his career on a high note like he has done today.

Congratulations to him, to what he's done for cricket, for global cricket, and especially for Afghanistan cricket.

Q. One of the major positives for your team was Loftie-Eaton's spell. I believe he hardly bowled in the qualifiers. Was he a surprise package for your plan today?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: No, he wasn't. But I'm very pleased for Nicol. It was about managing Nicol leading up to game time. He had a quad strain, so it was tough. He wasn't really on tour ready, so we needed to get him bowling fit in the nets first. What he's shown today is that he's ready, and I'm so pleased for him.

That's a huge positive for us. He's a confident player. He's a youngster. So that's a very big positive. You know, the bowling unit itself, I thought we executed good plans today. The moment we didn't execute, we were punished, and I suppose those are good lessons.

Q. And is he someone who bowls a bit of medium pace as well?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: No, I hope not.

Q. And also, what went wrong at the top? Like the power play you lost a few wickets, and it was very difficult to play catch-up, right?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: It's always going to be difficult. You're against top players. We had a plan, we had a game plan in how to approach that power play. It was all about no damage. The moment you lose four wickets in a power play, you're behind.

If you look at our dismissals, every batter will go and say that they got themselves out. One or two good yorkers on the day that a batter can say there was a good ball, but we know, we've been here long enough to know on these wickets you've got to play straight. We've learned some dear lessons today.

Q. The challenge is only going to get tougher from here. I believe New Zealand, India, Pakistan. So how are you looking forward to those games?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: We're definitely looking forward to them, and we are fully aware that it's going to now really get tough. We just don't want to be a team that's just going to walk up and provide a middle practice. We want to continue competing. We need to sharpen up our skills. We need to believe.

Today was maybe an icebreaker for this team, experiencing this level of intensity. So we haven't got a long turnaround. One day training, and then we've got to come and face the heat.

Q. David Wiese bowled the third over, and he pulled his length back a touch and was banking on slower balls. At that point, Zazai looked all at sea against him, and there was no pace on the ball. Do you think in hindsight that could have been a template where your pacers could have banked more on slower balls and not, for the Afghanistan batsmen, the pace that they did going ahead from the third over?

PIERRE DE BRUYN: Yes, absolutely. The plan was to stay out of the hitting zone. We know where the hitting zone is, that's when it's full. And that was our plan to go back over length, variation of pace.

As I said earlier, we got it right. If you look at Afghanistan batters' top percentage, it was very high. They relied on their boundary. Their boundary percentage was high. I think they hit 20 boundaries in their innings. That's a boundary an over. That really cost us.

When we got a drive, we were very good, but you can't miss your mark at this level.