Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott has lambasted the pitch that was used for their T20 World Cup 2024 semifinal against South Africa at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad.

The pitch, which offered lateral seam movement and inconsistent bounce, was a nightmare for batters as Afghanistan was bowled out for 56 runs on a bowling-friendly surface by South African bowlers with Azmatullah Omarzai top-scoring with 10 runs.

In reply, South Africa chased down the total inside 9 overs and moved to the final of the tournament. But Proteas batters had trouble negotiating the Afghan pacers as well.

"I don't want to get myself into trouble and I don't want to come across as bitter or it being a case of sour grapes but that's not the pitch that you want to have a match, a semi-final of a World Cup on, plain and simple," Trott said at the post-match press conference.

The former England batter said the pitch took batting completely out of the game.

"It should be a fair contest. I'm not saying it should be flat completely with no spin and no seam movement, I'm saying you shouldn't have batsmen worrying about going forward. They should be confident in foot movement and be able to hit through the line or use their skills. T20 is about attacking and about scoring runs and taking wickets, not looking to survive,” he added.

Tarouba hosted five World Cup games and only once did a team batting first cross the 100-run mark. It was done by the West Indies with a 149/6 against New Zealand which was successfully defended by the co-hosts.

"If the opposition bowled well and got to a position where they bowled very, very well and it's through skill, then that's fine and then it's about adapting to that. But once the ball starts misbehaving and rolling if we had bowled as straight as South Africa had, I think you would have seen a very interesting second half as well," Trott added.

Trott conceded they were outplayed by a strong South African unit.

"But we knew the schedule, so that's not an excuse as such. When you go in World Cups or tournaments, you can't have everything your way, and you've got to fight and play against the odds which you've done at times, and very proud of that. But it's no, it's not the reason why we didn't win today.

South Africa bowled well, used the conditions, and showed our boys what it's capable of. But it just didn't go our way tonight,” he said.

(PTI inputs)