Asia Cup 2023: Afghanistan alleges lack of communication from match officials over qualification scenarios for Super 4

In a nail-biting thriller against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup Group B game by 2 runs. The match was do-or-die for both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, and a blunder in calculation has potentially knocked Afghanistan out of the tournament. After restricting the defending champions to 291/8, Afghanistan needed to chase it down in 37.1 overs to qualify for the Super 4.

However, the team failed to do so and eventually lost the game by two runs. Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Afghanistan had a chance to win the game after 37.1 overs, which they missed out on. According to the calculations, Afghanistan had at least six more deliveries to win the game and qualify for the Super 4.

Now, this has triggered an unwanted controversy as the Afghanistan head coach and team management allege that no one communicated with them about the net run rate after 37.1 overs. We never communicated those calculations. All we were told was that we needed to win in 37.1 overs. We weren’t told the overs in which we could get 295 or 297. "That we could win in 38.1 overs was never communicated to us", said Afghanistan's Head coach.

How would Afghanistan have qualified for the Super 4 stage?

As Afghanistan needed 3 runs off 1 ball, number 10 batter Mujeeb Ur Rahman failed to score a boundary and got caught on long on. After this, the whole Afghani camp went into sadness and believed that they had lost the tournament. However, according to mathematical calculations, if Afghanistan had scored 293 in 37.2 overs, 294 in 37.3 overs, 296 in 38 overs, or 297 in 38.1 overs, they would have qualified above Sri Lanka.

As the team had already accepted their defeat, number 11 batter Fazalhaq Farooqi didn't even try to take a single in the successive three balls and eventually got out. This controversy has now emphasised the importance of data analysts in cricket teams who can support players with calculations during the game. However, Afghanistan failed to win any of their group games and is now eliminated. The teams that qualified for the Super Four are India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.