Afghanistan can scale new heights: Moles

Bengaluru, November 20: These are heady days for Afghanistan cricket. They have recently secured the Test nation tag and on Sunday (November 19), they emerged winners in the Under-19 Asia Cup, defeating Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur.

Andy Moles, the chief coach of Afghan U-19 side, was understandably elated and hoped the success would herald a new cricketing era for the country.

"We have the ICC Under-19 World Cup coming on our way and hopefully the lads can take confidence from this win and make an impression there (U19 WC). This was quite a morale booster for this side," said Moles.

Ikram’s unbeaten ton and Mujeeb’s five-for helped Afghanistan pull off a stunning 185-run victory against Pakistan to clinch the Under-19 Asia Cup for the first time!

REPORT: https://t.co/SU6yfHL4uh pic.twitter.com/eNHZGoMGQZ

— ICC (@ICC) November 19, 2017

Playing the 50-over cricket, Moles said, has taught the players to look at the game from a different perspective.

"In the 50-over format, challenges are varied. You need to adapt to different needs in a single game - at times you need to accelerate and at times you need to be on the defensive. You will see many sides of the game in a single match. It's a good learning curve," he said.

Moles said the unheralded Afghanistan side was not in awe of bigger and fancied opponents who were in the fray.

"There were some big teams in the tournament like India and Pakistan. And nobody really gave us a chance ahead of the tournament. In a way, it helped us that the spotlight was not on us, so we could prepare in our own way," said the New Zealander.