Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib praises David Warner for ignoring pantomime villain role

Naib was left frustrated by his batsmen’s shortcomings as Afghanistan were initially reduced to five for two, with Mohammad Shahzad and Hazratullah Zazai both being dismissed without scoring inside the first eight balls of the match

Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib praised the Australian pair of David Warner and Steve Smith for ignoring the pantomime boos from the Bristol crowd after his side suffered a seven-wicket defeat at the hands of the returning duo.

Warner made an unbeaten 89, while Smith took a sharp catch and ran out key man Mohammad Nabi to a chorus of jeers from a crowd that reveled in the two players’ first official ODI appearances since being banned for their part in the ball-tampering scandal that shook Australian cricket.

“I have a lot of respect for Smith and Warner,” Naib said of the Australians' ability to thrive depsite their roles as the villains of the day. “It's a crowd audience. You cannot do anything against them. If you focus [on] the crowd, then you [don’t] focus on your game.”

The majority of those packed in at Bristol were there to back Afghanistan, with a large contingent of Afghans getting behind their team.

“The crowd all support Afghanistan and there was a huge number of Afghans in the crowd there, so it gave a lot of energy on the ground for the boys,” he added of the spectators’ influence on his side’s performance.

^{Steve Smith was dismissed with just three runs needed for victory.}

Despite losing two early wickets to Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, a rally from Afghanistan’s middle and lower order took Naib’s side to 207 – short of a competitive total, but a more than respectable effort in the circumstances.

Naib, however, was left frustrated by his batsmen’s shortcomings as Afghanistan were initially reduced to five for two, with Mohammad Shahzad and Hazratullah Zazai both being dismissed without scoring inside the first eight balls of the match.

“It [was] a low score on this kind of surface. So, if you batted faster, you should be 250 or 270 plus,” he acknowledged.

Afghanistan’s next game is in Cardiff on Tuesday against Sri Lanka, who were beaten by 10 wickets earlier by New Zealand.

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