Trott and Afghanistan were unaware of the several permutations that could've upsurped Sri Lanka 

Afghanistan head coach Jonathan made an outrageous revelation following his sides’ heart crushing two run loss against Sri Lanka in Lahore on Tuesday (September 5). Chasing 292 for victory, Afghanistan were supposed to hunt down the total in 37.1 overs to qualify. They found themselves at 289/8 at the end of the 37th over. 

This meant that they needed three runs off a single delivery to seal their Super 4s spot. Rashid Khan, who had been going hammer and tongs till that point, found himself at the non striker’s end.  What he and other Afghan batters weren’t aware of was they had until 38.1 to get the job done, given they got to 297. So, they could have reached 293 after 37.2 overs, 294 after 37.3, 295 after 37.5 and 296 after 38 overs, or 297 after 38.1 overs to seize Sri Lanka’s place on NRR. 

So, there were numerous permutations still available for the dark horses but Mujeeb Ur Rahman and then Fazalhaq  Farooqui who walked next had no idea about this. Trott revealed that they had no information on the possibilities and thus relayed no messages to the batters in the middle. Mujeeb and Farooqui were dismissed in quick succession with the latter even trying to play out the 38th over assuming his side’s chances were over as Afghanistan eventually suffered an agonising defeat. 

"We were never communicated those calculations," he said. "All we were communicated was we needed to win in 37.1 overs. We weren't told what the overs in which we could get were 295 or 297. (That we could win even after) 38.1 overs was never communicated to us."

Afghanistan’s run chase was bolstered by Mohammad Nabi’s swashbuckling 32 ball 65 with significant contributions from skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmat Shah. When the equation came down to 16 off 10, Afghanistan lost the prized wicket of Najibullah Zadran, who stacked the odds heavily in his side’s favour with a fiery cameo. The southpaw and Rashid had put Afghanistan in a strong position before the ultimate anti-climax. Trott could not quite pinpoint on a particular factor behind Afghanistan’s defeat. 

"I don't think there's one reason we lost the game," Trott said. "There are areas of the game we could have done better and that goes for today's game and the one against Bangladesh. We got some things horribly wrong in a few areas and it's cost us. It'd be nice if we'd bowled them out a bit cheaper. But it wasn't to be."