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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPMarch 4, 2015Andy MolesPERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA Q. Andy, Dawlat bowled a good spell up front and got Aaron Finch, but do you think somewhere in the middle overs you missed someone like a Mirwais Ashraf or a specialist spinner to stem the flow up front? ANDY MOLES: Actually Ashraf, Mirwais is a key member of our squad. He comes in and bowls tight, and having him been injured in a way and gone home is a huge loss to us. But you're quite right, Dawlat did bowl well up front, but unfortunately the bowlers around him didn't bowl well enough for long enough. I thought we bowled very well at Warner for the first five, six overs. He had a bit of luck, but all batters deserve a bit of luck. But we didn't persist with bowling the same areas and unfortunately we got short, and we spoke about not to bowl short and we spoke about not to bowl short, and then the rest is history. Once it got away we just couldn't get the momentum back again. Yes, we do miss Mirwais inside, but the guys are good enough and have showed in the previous games that we can bowl better areas for longer than what we did do today. So that in itself is a disappointment. Q. The plan was not to bowl too short, but your fastbowlers clearly ordered the short bowl to him. Why do you think that happened? Did they get carried away by the bounce? ANDY MOLES: Yeah, I think they're not the first group of bowlers that have come here. There's many teams come to Perth and unfortunately fall into the trap of bowling shorter and shorter as they see the ball carrying through to the keeper at head height. We did discuss it. We've been here in October and November and the guys had the opportunity to bowl on this wicket, and it's just disappointing and sad that we went away from the lengths that we started off on. We started well, bowled good areas, went past the edge of the bat, we brought our fielders in front of the wicket into the game, and if it went past the edge, obviously the slips and keeper are in the game, but unfortunately when you bowl shorter, you take out your fielders in front of the wicket because it's going square of the wicket, and we spoke before the game about the need, if we leak runs, they have to be down on the ground and not square of the wicket. But as I said, yes, it is a disappointment, but they're not the first group of bowlers to fall into that trap, and we've got to learn from that, and we're going to Napier which has got a little bit of pace and bounce in it, as well. The only thing there, the boundaries are even shorter on the side of there. We've got to make sure that we are disciplined in the areas we bowl. They don't do it on purpose, obviously, but it's disappointing. We've worked hard in the nets not to do it, and as a bowling group we're disappointed they didn't execute the skills that they did do against Sri Lanka and Scotland. Q. Glenn Maxwell, there were sweeps in those inventive shots. Did they surprise the bowlers, and how much of a learning experience was it for the bowlers taking it forward? ANDY MOLES: Well, there's not too many people play -- I know there's one or two, but from a learning point of view, hopefully we don't see it too often in the future because it was some quite special batting, and he's come into some criticism I notice in the past of playing it too early. I think he waited one ball today. But he's obviously a very special player, and as all coaches and captains want, the innings were set up for him by not losing the early wickets and he could come in and express himself. I thought he played quite beautifully and put a lot of pressure on the bowlers, and from a learning point of view, yes, we've got to learn to be calmer and execute areas, but when people are playing those type of shots which they've probably never come across before, and actually they may have watched it on TV or a video, we've watched videos and spoke about the fact that Maxwell did play those shots, but when it actually happens you've got to react to what happens, and we'll talk about that, and hopefully should they come across the chance to bowl to Maxwell again, they'll do better. Q. It does boil down to a lack of experience, doesn't it? How is it possible to bridge that gap with the absence of experience? ANDY MOLES: Yeah, I think all the associates are going to say we need to play more cricket, we need to play more games, but the horrible truth is that is the truth. We need to play -- how can you get used to playing against people bowling 150 plus, especially on a surface that -- what a great surface but it's got more pace and bounce than probably any other cricket wicket in the world probably. To play against that and get used to it, you have to play against it. I mean, we use golf balls on the nets to get extra bounce, we use synthetic balls that bounce more, we've used bowling machines, we've done a lot of preparation for this game, but the players need to, as you quite rightly say, we need to play against people that bowl at that speed with that aggression, with that excellence more often so that we can get better at playing at it. Q. Just with England and New Zealand coming up, how do you go about trying to turn around the confidence of the lads, and is there a fear that they might go into their shells a bit after tonight? ANDY MOLES: No, I'll be doing my best to make sure they don't go into their shells. I keep telling them the must express themselves and play with the freedom that Afghanistan cricket has been known for, but obviously we have to temper that around getting over your 10 or 12 balls and some of the guys didn't get into that mode tonight. New Zealand and England, especially New Zealand, have got off to a great start, obviously winning all their games, they're playing at home. They're full of confidence. But as I've just said today, we've run into a freight train today. We were out-skilled, obviously, out-bullied, if you want to put that way. They were exceptional, and we came up short, and we hold our hands up, we've got to get better, no excuses. We'll be working very hard between now and New Zealand. They've got an exceptional bowling attack, as well, in Southee and Boult and backed up by the other guys, and we have to make sure that we are ready for what we know is going to be a very tough examination, and I just said to the guys, playing quick bowling is about character, and we need to show more character when we're up against it. Q. Why did you decide to bowl first because that surprised a lot of people. ANDY MOLES: Well, at first to tell you that if Afghanistan are going to beat Australia today, if we'd have batted first and got 260, in all probability that wouldn't have been enough, as you saw. The only way we can beat Australia is to bowl first, bowl well, which we did start well but do it for longer, and try to restrict them to somewhere near 300, and then hopefully our stroke makers can have a good day and chase it down. I think we thought that for us to win the game, we might win a small percentage chasing a score, 300-ish, but to do that we have to bowl obviously a lot better than we did today. If we'd have batted first and scored 240, 250, which as you've seen as we batted today would have been a tough ask, with the bowling attack we have at the moment, without the race around, I think we'd have found it very difficult to restrict Australia, to bowl them out and stop them getting 260, and I think you saw that today probably that argument holds a bit of water. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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