'It pains when you lose the match you had in hands' - Asghar Afghan after Afghanistan's narrow loss against Pakistan

The ongoing edition of the Asia Cup has been one of the finest in terms of close matches and edge-of-the-seat thrillers. Last night, Afghanistan produced exceptional performances in their attempt to defend their low score of 130. However, the twin sixes of Naseem Shah in the last over ended their hopes of reaching the finals.

Former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan said that it is good that the people in Afghanistan are praising the team’s fighting attitude and performances despite the loss. However, he added that it is painful to lose the match when the opposition has only one wicket and 11 runs required to win the game.

“Obviously when you lose the match like this, people are upset. But they are supporting the players for their fighting performances. Although the team lost, they won people’s hearts. The win and loss are the part and parcel of the game, but it pains to lose the match you had in your hands,” said Asghar Afghan via 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.

Virat Kohli ends his century drought in international cricket

In the absence of Rohit Sharma, the Indian stalwart Virat Kohli opened the innings along with KL Rahul. The duo added 119 runs for the first wicket, which already put India put in a dominating position against Afghanistan.

After the dismissal of Rahul, Kohli increased his tempo to steer the team at a lavish rate and finally reach his 71^st century. The 33-year-old reached the three-figures mark after nearly three years, to help India to post a strong total of 212 on the board.

In response, Afghanistan had a dismal start to their innings, wherein they were stuttering at 20/5 in the powerplay overs. The terrible start meant Afghanistan could never recover and were kept at 111/8, losing the game by 101 runs. The experienced pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar wreaked havoc with figures of 5/4 in four overs.