ROME, Ga. – Pirelli Tire North America and the Trans-Am Series have renewed their partnership until the end of 2024, with the Italian tire company serving as presenting partner for the Trans-Am Series.

At the same time, Pirelli has also extended its agreement with SVRA – the Sportscar Vintage Racing Ass’n – for the same period, as the official street tire of SVRA. SVRA, the largest vintage racing organization in the United States open to virtually any vintage or historic race car, will share a number of key dates with the Trans Am Series.

The recent five-year extension between Pirelli and the Trans-Am Series comes off the back of the current three-year agreement that lasts until the end of this year. As a result, Pirelli will continue to be presenting sponsor as well as official tire supplier to one of the best-known road racing championships in the United States, which is rooted in popular culture as well as motorsport.

The Trans-Am Series has been thrilling fans and drivers alike since 1966, with a range of classes that include production-based entries up all the way up to the iconic 850 plus horsepower TA Class. This complements Pirelli’s road to track philosophy perfectly, in which the lessons learned on circuits are put into practice on road car tires. Pirelli will continue to supply the entire Trans-Am field, including a purpose-built competition tire for the TA and TA2 classes, enabling the drivers to get the very most out of their cars while spectators enjoy a spectacular show that highlights the very best of American racing.

Ultra high performance – as well as competition – is at the very heart of Pirelli, which celebrates more than 110 years of motorsport and recently renewed its exclusive partnership with Formula 1. As well as supplying more than 220 car racing championships worldwide, Pirelli is one of the companies that invests most into research and development through motorsport, in order for the competition product to be as closely aligned to road car tires as possible.

Consequently, Pirelli and Trans-Am are currently testing 18-inch tires for the headlining TA class, which could be adopted from next season already: bringing the tires used on the track even closer to those on the road. In a similar move, Pirelli is introducing 18-inch tires to F-1 beginning in 2021.

“We’re delighted to renew this relationship for a championship that’s at the heart of American automotive culture, with extremely close racing and very high standards of driving,” said Pirelli North America Chief Executive Officer Marco Crola. “As well as providing great entertainment, this agreement enables us to reinforce our links with iconic American car manufacturers, and further enhance the connection between road and track with our high-technology P Zero products. This same technology is also seen in our Pirelli Collezione tires for classic cars, which combine classic looks with modern know-how, underlining the importance of the SVRA series to our portfolio as well.”

“It’s a pleasure for us to extend the partnership with Pirelli, which is an extremely popular move among drivers and teams as well,” said Trans-Am Series President John Clagett. “Pirelli is an iconic brand that stands for performance and style, with a commitment to competition and technical excellence that fits in perfectly with our own.”

Sean Rayhall walked away from professional racing in December and, at the time, had no plans to be back in a race car of any kind.

After years of being passed over for opportunities he hoped to attain and burned out in many different facets, the fun was gone and Rayhall was ready to focus on business ventures he hoped would shape his future.

Then, an old friend gave the 24-year-old native of Winston, Ga., a call — and just as quickly as he was gone from the racing scene, Rayhall was sucked back in.

“I was done. I was completely done when I walked away,” Rayhall told SPEED SPORT. “It wasn’t fun anymore; I wasn’t having fun and I was ready for a change because I felt like, if I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing, then why do it, you know?

“I grew up ripping sheetrock out of walls and working in construction when I wasn’t racing because it was what I needed to do, but racing was always something I was passionate about. When I left at the end of last year, that passion wasn’t there anymore. It felt like a job more than it did something that I was doing because it was fun to do.

“I knew that if I was going to come back, I had to find something that would spark the same kind of passion for the sport that I had when I was a kid, and I found that when T.J. Michael finally called me.”

Michael, a longtime friend of Rayhall and his family, put a driving offer on the table. The only catch? It was a type of car that Rayhall — despite his diverse racing résumé — had never campaigned.

It proved to be enough of a lure, however, and Rayhall will be going sprint car racing for the first time this year.

The former Indy Lights winner and European Le Mans Series champion plans to compete in 15 to 20 winged sprint car events later this season. He’ll drive for the Michael Racing Group, a team Rayhall calls his “second family” and “a group that I can have fun with” as he jumps back into the driver’s seat.

“I helped T.J. in Legend Cars a little bit, years ago and I actually even took his older sister to Homecoming down in Texas, back in the day … so I’ve always been really, really close with the Michael family. I call him my little brother, but he’s taller than me now,” Rayhall joked. “They always knew that when I went back road-course racing, it was more to make a living, than it was necessarily to go racing. I enjoyed what I did for a while, but it just wasn’t for me. After a while, it didn’t fit my ideals anymore.

“We’d been talking and flirting with the idea of me driving one of their cars for a while, so when T.J. called me and asked what I thought, I told him, ‘Man, I want to go racing,’” added Rayhall. “Sprint cars have always been a passion of mine, even though I haven’t been able to race them full time or anything like that, but he and I talked about the idea and finally, we sat down to have dinner and decided that this just felt right to go and do.

“Sometimes, when it just feels right, you have to jump on an opportunity … and that’s how I feel about this deal.”

Rayhall, who celebrated his 24th birthday in March, has one of the most diverse racing résumés in the country, even though he’s still on the younger end of the age spectrum.

He started go-kart racing at age 7 and moved to bigger cars five years later, joining the Skip Barber Southern Series in 2007 before winning his first major race as a 14-year-old in 2009.

Rayhall added Legend Car championships at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2010, as well as a class victory in the prestigious Legends Million at CMS before moving to late models and competing with the USAR Pro Cup (CARS Tour) and UARA-STARS Series in 2011 and ’12.

The following year, Rayhall began his six-year sojourn in sports cars and open-wheel formula cars, the stint of his career with which most fans are familiar. He claimed the L1 Class title in IMSA Lites during his debut season in 2013, later moving into Prototype Challenge competition with the American Le Mans Series and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

A short-lived Indy Lights stint that produced two victories in 2015 paved the way for a move to the European Le Mans Series, where Rayhall teamed with John Falb to collect the LMP3 class championship on the strength of two wins and five podium finishes in six events.

Rayhall even got the opportunity to run a Chip Ganassi Racing Indy car, sharing the seat with Charlie Kimball during a test at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, but opportunities to advance to the top level of open-wheel racing in the United States never panned out for Rayhall.

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – McKenna Haase recently became the latest in a sequence of auto-racing drivers to participate in NBC’s American Ninja Warrior television series, an experience she’s since called “unforgettable.”

Haase, who frequents Knoxville Raceway as a 360 sprint car driver and became the first female in history to win a feature at the half-mile oval, followed in the footsteps of NASCAR and Indy car stars as a participant on the show, which features obstacle courses designed to challenge athletes of all types.

The program boasts a $1 million prize if a Ninja Warrior athlete can make it to the finals of the show and successfully navigate all four phases of the grand-finale course.

Ryan Blaney and Ben Kennedy represented NASCAR on the program two years ago, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tried his hand at the ninja course twice, in both 2016 and 2017.

NTT IndyCar Series regulars Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan – as well as part-time Indy car drivers Helio Castroneves and Conor Daly – have also tried to beat the clock on ANW.

Haase, however, is the first dirt open-wheel driver to make an American Ninja Warrior appearance.

While that’s a title she takes pride in, Haase was quick to note that it’s not just about being the first to do something for her, much like when she won at Knoxville for the first time. Instead, it’s about passion.

“Obviously I started training to get better for racing, but once I started doing Ninja Warrior training, and getting better at it … my goal became to make it on the show,” Haase told SPEED SPORT. “A lot of that comes down to sacrifice. I know there were a lot of professional drivers who tried going on the show over the last few years, but a lot of them don’t do Ninja as training full time, at least that I know of.”

That’s one aspect of Haase’s journey to the Ninja Warrior stage that makes her attempt unique.

“For me, the sport of Ninja itself is something that I’m really passionate about and really enjoy doing,” she said. “It’s kind of like racing. As a driver, you don’t want to miss the biggest races of the year, and that’s what this show is for Ninja. There are competitions across the country, but American Ninja Warrior is kind of like the Granddaddy of Them All.”

It’s fitting then, that Haase slipped in that Knoxville Nationals parallel into her recollection of her Ninja Warrior experience. She views both sports as having different aspects that aid one another.

“Everyone said that when I went to the show and stood on the platform, my heart was going to be beating out of my chest,” Haase said. “I tried to mentally prepare myself and stay as calm as possible, and I waited six hours in the holding tank beforehand. … A lot of that focus and the knowledge that you only get one shot are things that translate back into the race car, even though we have more races in a given season to get things right.

“I think that focus on hitting my marks, without overthinking anything, is a parallel that I can definitely utilize in both sports. They definitely have different things that cross over between the two, for sure.”

To continue reading, advance to the next page.

OREGON, Wis. – One year ago, the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series tackled Madison Int’l Speedway for the first time.

This Friday the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series returns to Madison Int’l Speedway for the Bytec Dairyland 100.

Kody Swanson was victorious in the inaugural Dairyland 100 a year ago.  In fact, in the six most recent instances in which Swanson made his first Silver Crown start at a particular pavement track, he’s finished in the top-five: second-place finishes at both Michigan’s Berlin Raceway and Ohio’s Toledo Speedway in 2010; a second at Gateway Motorsports Park in Illinois and a fifth at Pikes Peak Int’l Raceway in Colorado in 2013; followed by wins at Salem (Ind.) Speedway in 2016 and Madison in 2018. At both Toledo and Salem, he followed up with a victory in his very next appearance there.

At Madison last year, Swanson started second, led the first five, then retook control just before midway to lead the remaining 53 laps and score the victory.  The Kingsburg, Calif., native leads the standings coming in as the winningest series driver of all-time pursues an unprecedented fifth series title. The Nolen Racing team he’s competing with this year had two cars entered last year, finishing fifth with Chris Windom and sixth with Jerry Coons Jr.

Justin Grant was the driver who took the lead from Swanson early in the going after starting from the pole position in last year’s Dairyland 100. The Ione, Calif., driver led 42 laps of the event and settled for third at the checkered. This season, he’s been the only driver to keep Swanson in check in the championship battle, six points out of the lead, and is the only driver to finish in the top four in every race this season.  He’s garnered two third-place finishes and three fourth-place runs in five starts.

David Byrne, third in the standings, is the lone Wisconsin native to enter the event.  The Shullsburg driver owns the one-lap track record at Madison in a wing sprint car and was the hard charger in last year’s Dairyland 100. After qualifying eighth originally, his time was disallowed, forcing him to start from the rear of the field. He proceeded to charge all the way to a seventh-place finish.

Along with Swanson, Eric Gordon is the only other driver entered for Friday’s race who has been victorious in USAC Silver Crown competition in the state of Wisconsin.  In 1990, the Fortville, Ind., driver was a winner at The Milwaukee Mile, out-dueling the likes of Stan Fox and Dave Blaney to capture his first and, thus far, only Silver Crown win.  Last year at Madison he qualified third, but experienced brake problems 17 laps in, forcing him to drop out and take a 19th place finish.

Mike Haggenbottom is riding a wave coming into Madiso as he sits fifth in the series standings after finishing a career-high fourth on the dirt at Williams Grove Speedway in his home state of Pennsylvania.  The Levittown, Pa., driver finished 15th last year at Madison, which at the time, was just his second career Silver Crown appearance on pavement.

Others on the entry list for the Bytec Dairyland 100 include Austin Nemire, Bobby Santos, Kevin Thomas Jr., Kyle Hamilton, Windom, Jim Anderson, Travis Welpott, Matt Goodnight, Kyle Robbins, Derek Bischak, Toni Breidinger, Patrick Lawson, Russ Gamester, Brian Gerster, Chris Dyson and Gody Gerhardt.

Madison Int’l Speedway has hosted a smattering of USAC races over the decades.  The National Sprint Cars have competed twice on the pavement, with Larry Dickson taking the top honors in 1970 and Dave Steele capturing the checkered flag in 1997.  In 1987, the track was covered with dirt with Kevin Huntley picking up the first of his five USAC National Sprint Car victories.

The National Midgets have raced at Madison on five occasions with the legendary Mel Kenyon sweeping all three in 1969 and Gary Bettenhausen winning the following year in 1970.  Jimmy McCune picked up the midget portion of the USAC doubleheader in 1997.

FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Stars have acquired right wing Ryan Hartman from the Philadelphia Flyers for center Tyler Pitlick.

The trade was announced Monday, two days after the end of the NHL draft and a week before the start of free agency.

Hartman had 12 goals and 14 assists while playing 83 regular-season games last season. He played 64 games for Nashville before getting traded to Philadelphia, where he played 19 more.

The 24-year-old Hartman has 42 goals and 47 assists in 245 career games over five seasons with Chicago, Nashville and Philadelphia. He was the 30th overall pick when Chicago drafted him in the first round in 2013.

Pitlick had eight goals and four assists in 47 games for Dallas, and then played in six playoff games for the Stars.

Edmonton picked Pitlick in the second round (31st overall) in the 2010 draft.

REIMS, France -- For all the goals, celebrations and wins of the past two weeks, the World Cup in some ways began Monday for the United States with a mistake.

Not a cataclysmic error or a failure of character. Just a mistake.

But World Cups can turn on one mistake. This one, resulting in the U.S. allowing its first goal in 674 minutes, didn't. Not yet.

With the ball at her feet, the place where she has the best claim to being among the best goalkeepers in the world, Alyssa Naeher picked the wrong pass. With Spain already pressing the U.S. with vigor bordering on recklessness in the opening minutes of Monday's knockout game, Naeher played a short pass to defender Becky Sauerbrunn to begin a buildup.

She hesitated uncharacteristically before the pass, as if unsure which teammate to choose. It still might not have mattered, but Sauerbrunn's own hesitation receiving the pass allowed Spain's Lucia Garcia to steal the ball and find Jennifer Hermoso. With Naeher pulled out of her goal, Hermoso lofted a shot that rose over Naeher's hand and found the back of the net.

"I think I just tried to do a little bit too much," Naeher said of the goal. "Shouldn't have played that ball into a pressure pocket. Probably a smarter decision to just play it a little bit higher up the field. But things happen when you try to play. Unfortunate way to give up a goal, but I thought we responded well."

• U.S. beats Spain with pair of Rapinoe penalties

• What's next for Brazil's Marta?

• African soccer wants action against Cameroon

That sequence in the ninth minute led to the first goal the U.S. conceded in the World Cup -- and the first time it was so much as tied at a score of more than 0-0 in the knockout rounds since 2011. It also wiped out the momentum the Americans thrive on. Two minutes earlier, Tobin Heath drew a penalty that Megan Rapinoe capitalized on.

"Obviously, with pressure like that, just need to get rid of it," Rapinoe said. "I think we all kind of came together like, 'It's fine, it's early.' Obviously, getting an early goal for us, those things are going to happen. ... Just stay in it and have each other's back. "We'll watch film, and they won't do that again in that exact same way."

The goalkeeper and the back line responded on this day by keeping a clean sheet the rest of the way. Busier than they were in any of the first three games, maybe all three games combined, the defensive effort after the equalizing goal gave the U.S. the breathing room it needed to pull out a 2-1 win and move forward in the tournament.

In the end, Spain pushed for one more tying goal. At one point, Naeher rose to get to a ball ahead of a Spanish player, then stayed on her feet through the end of the subsequent play only to fall the ground in a collision.

While otherwise praising Naeher before the World Cup, former U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry noted it's impossible to know how someone will react to major tournament adversity until they experience it. It didn't mean she thought Naeher couldn't. She just didn't know. Couldn't know.

The miscommunication or miscue between Naeher and Sauerbrunn could have been more costly. The U.S. never did control this game, even as it fought throughout for the upper hand.

The game could have gone to extra time. It could have gone to penalty kicks, like the 2016 Olympic quarterfinal against Sweden that derailed a U.S. effort. It could have unraveled.

But it didn't. And now Naeher has some of that experience, too.

"When you get out into the knockout rounds, it's always so much more pressure, so much more tense out there," Rapinoe said. "Everything matters, every play matters. Every sort of wave of the game is important. I think halfway through the second half, it was like we need to take this up a notch. Obviously, there's quite a few of us that have been there in these big games and sort of realize those moments. And that experience was really big for us tonight."

Whether or not the World Cup began for the U.S. on Monday, it didn't end.

All eyes turn to Paris

There will be plenty of time this week to hype a game that has already received its share of hype, a quarterfinal in Paris between the teams that entered the tournament as betting favorites.

And Rapinoe, for one, is ready for the fun. Even if she picked a different word.

"Hopefully, a complete spectacle," Rapinoe said. "Just an absolute media circus. I hope it's huge and crazy. That's what it should be. This is the best game, this is what everybody wanted. I think we want it, seems like they're up for it ... all the fans. Maybe it will be a pretty even split between the fans in the stadium. We've been traveling pretty deep in this World Cup.

"I hope it's just a total s---show circus. It's going to be totally awesome. I think this is what everybody wants."

VAR smiles on the United States

It wasn't the first VAR review for the U.S. in this tournament, or even the first to involve a penalty kick, but it was the most important for the defending champion. And fittingly for this World Cup, it will leave its own trail of controversy. With extra time looming and the U.S. still short on quality scoring chances in the second half, Hungarian referee Katalin Kulcsar awarded a penalty when Rose Lavelle was clipped as she chased a ball across the box in the 71st minute. Replays showed minimal contact, albeit contact nonetheless, by the Spanish defender after Lavelle reached the ball.

After Spanish players gathered around the ball in a delaying tactic that was likely unnecessary given the frequency of VAR reviews in this World Cup, Kulcsar jogged over to the sideline, watched the review and held her ground on a penalty as the correct decision.

Alex Morgan stepped up to take the initial penalty, but Rapinoe said she was instructed during the delay to stick to the team's established protocol and take the penalty herself.

"It's ultimately the coach's decision, so the ball went back to Pinoe," Morgan said. "I'm happy taking it, I'm happy giving it to Pinoe."

The physical price of success

On a hot day, with temperatures at about 90 degrees at kickoff, and with the U.S. on three fewer days of rest than its opponent, Monday's game was always going to be a physical challenge for the Americans.

Spain then pressed and pressed on that pressure point, looking almost like North American rival Canada in its willingness to go in hard on every challenge. It was a style of play Kulcsar allowed from the outset, but she was consistent in allowing it. Everyone on the field for the U.S. seemed to take their share of the hits, but Morgan was perhaps the most frequent recipient.

"I got a knock last game, but luckily I recovered," Morgan said. "Maybe the Spain players saw that and wanted to be a little more aggressive with me. But I feel like, if anything, it took them off their game more than it took me off mine."

Just as in the game between the teams in January, Spain showed off the possession game for which it is known, nearly equaling the U.S. with possessing the ball 46% of time. But the physical play was a new twist that reflected a World Cup knockout game instead of a winter friendly.

"I don't remember that being this physical, this aggressive, this reckless -- in challenges at least," Morgan said. "For me, that was a little different. I wasn't expecting that. At the same time, we were able to capitalize on that with penalties."

Spain is coming

The contrast was stark between the challenges France and the United States faced in this round. France held off one final push from Marta, Christiane and Formiga, the stalwarts of a Brazilian team that has tantalized with its potential for more than a decade. It isn't clear what Brazil will look like when next on this stage.

The team the U.S. faced Monday is just getting started. Whether it was reckless or courageous, or maybe a little of both, Spain brought showed a fearlessness few opponents exhibit against the Americans. All the more from a team that has just one all-time World Cup win and had played the United States just once in its history.

Spain wasn't intimidated by the opponent or the stage. It is already well on its way to building the kind of talent pool that will allow it to win these games soon enough.

Her eye puffy from a first-half collision that resulted in her coming out of the game, Vicky Losada chose to focus more on what's ahead than the penalties that doomed her team Monday.

"I think we have a really good future," Losada said.

Durham 259 for 5 (Bancroft 120*; Eckersley 70*, Jordan 4-41) vs Sussex

Both Chris Jordan and Cameron Bancroft have played eight Test matches. No one knows if either will play any more. Jordan squeezed his allotment into 12 months whereas Bancroft's five-day career with Australia was infamously paused a year last March. It may yet be that both cricketers will have even more reason to reflect on Tests missed than 77-year-old John Snow, who strolled out to the middle with some former colleagues during tea on this first day at Hove.

"Dreams come slow and they go so fast" sings Michael Rosenberg in his stage guise as Passenger.

There was, then, a piquant irony that a day which seemed likely to be dominated by Jordan was eventually made memorable by someone else who might not play Test cricket again, although in Bancroft's case the root cause of his exile has been discussed to exhaustion. Bancroft is the only one of the Newlands Three - an all too convenient label - yet to be rehabilitated. His figures for Durham going into this game - 213 runs in nine innings with a top score of 70 - certainly do not demand his inclusion in this season's Ashes squad.

Yet Bancroft's technical accomplishment in making 120 not out suggested why the Australian selectors originally selected him and his patience during 80 tough overs exemplified the mental resilience needed in the longest and best form of the game.

He was dropped once, on 59, when Ben Brown grassed an inside edge off David Wiese, and he could have been run out had Delray Rawlins' throw hit the stumps a few overs later. But maybe he deserves a fair go - in more ways than one. He went into the nineties with a straight six off Luke Wells and reached his hundred, off 179 balls, with a tuck for two off Aaron Thomason. His response was, by modern standards, undemonstrative; perhaps he felt it had been a long time coming.

Batting was not easy at Hove and Bancroft rarely made it appear otherwise. Only when he pulled and then cover-drove successive deliveries from Thomason did his strokes have the air of a man amongst boys. Yet he stayed in during the morning and early afternoon when batting was difficult; he consolidated in the afternoon either side of wickets tumbling; and he whipped the dust sheets off a few more expansive strokes towards the end of this rich day.

As far as Jordan is concerned, the conventional response from Sussex supporters to his England absence is that it suits them quite well. The outswinger with which he took the edge of Graham Clark's bat before the Durham batsman had scored would have embarrassed many Test cricketers and Clark could do no more than edge it to Laurie Evans at second slip. But that wicket was only third of four wickets Jordan took and the second of three he bagged in eight balls as Durham collapsed from a relatively affluent 64 for 1 to an impecunious 90 for 5.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was dominated by Bancroft and Ned Eckersley, the latter batting with immense good sense for his 70 not out, although he had been dropped on 5 by Evans at second slip off Ollie Robinson. His unbroken stand of 169 with Bancroft is already a record for Durham's sixth-wicket against Sussex. And Eckersley's evening flourishes were a remarkable counterpoint to the day's opening exchanges

Early rain allowed only 7.2 overs in the morning but it seems no session is so short these days that Durham's opening batsmen can survive it. So the most surprising feature of the morning was that Durham wanted to bat; the least surprising that the visitors lost an early wicket when Alex Lees drove Jordan's eighth ball of the day to Harry Finch at backward point. Lees and Bancroft are the fifth opening pair Durham have tried this season and since April 8 their highest first-wicket partnership in ten attempts is just 14.

Light showers forced the players from the field but the sky was merely grey, not lowering, and the spectators sat behind a gentle film of rain. Many people went for walks and no one crouched under umbrellas. The floodlights came on after lunch and the cricket acquired an autumnal, almost stolen, air. Bancroft drove Jordan through mid-off and you could sense his relief at receiving a half-volley. If runs came quickly that was because Brown posted four slips while Jordan and Ollie Robinson bowled attacking lengths.

Every cricket ground in the land is different but none is as divorced from the rest as Hove when the atmosphere remains heavy and the Sussex seamers strive hard for movement through sea-scented air. "A warm Hove welcome for Aaron Thomason," said the PA announcer Mike Charman, when the former Warwickshire seamer came on for his first spell. Luke Wells may be the only reminder of the days when this county's cricket was a network of lineages but Sussex is still a family.

In a couple of overs the welcome was warmer still when Gareth Harte played too early at a full length ball and skewed a catch to Stiaan van Zyl at extra cover. By then the air had freshened and birds sought food in the softened earth. A few overs later Thomason twice overpitched and Jack Burnham drove him without a flicker of effort through the covers and straight towards the sea. The bowler beat him with the next ball and that proved a portent of his fate when Jordan was recalled next over.

Thomason, though, has been well advised to throw in his lot with Sussex. This is a club to which old players return; Snow, Peter Graves and John Barclay were just three of those who were out in the middle, talking to supporters and no doubt pondering the way it is and used to be.

"Yesterday, today, twisted like a rope," wrote Alan Ross in 1951. Cameron Bancroft might agree.

Gulbadin Naib, Afghanistan's captain, blamed a shoddy fielding performance for his side's failure to claim their first scalp of the World Cup, as his attempts to replicate the circumstances of their battling display against India on Saturday came unstuck in a 62-run defeat against Bangladesh.

Faced with the same strip of turf on which Afghanistan's spinners had bowled heroically to limit India to 224 for 8 two days earlier, Gulbadin chose to bowl after winning the toss - an unexpected decision, given both the used track and his side's proven strengths.

And despite batting with tenacity for the first half of their reply, Bangladesh's total of 262 for 7 proved to be more than enough, against a side that - for all its rising reputation and proven ability to shock - has yet to find a means to compile an authoritative chase.

In 15 previous chases against senior ODI opponents, Afghanistan had won on just three occasions, and never when chasing a target in excess of 212. Moreover, their highest total when batting second was 258, four runs shy of today's target - albeit it came against Bangladesh, in Dhaka in 2016.

WATCH on Hotstar (India only) - Afghanistan's wickets They never came close to Monday's target, thanks to another masterful display of spin bowling from Shakib Al Hasan. However, while Gulbadin praised the impact of his five-wicket haul, he felt the match was lost elsewhere.

"Yeah, I'm happy with the toss, but if you look at the match, we missed a couple of catches and gave away around 30, 35 runs with misfields. Without those, maybe the total is not that much. The wicket was slow, and it's good for batting. So we look to start well. But praise goes to Shakib. He bowled really well. But because of misfielding we missed the opportunity again."

Aside from one glaring drop from Dawlat Zadran at point in the final over of the innings, Afghanistan's errors were broadly based in ground fielding, as Bangladesh took their chance to put the pressure on with confident running, and were able to push the singles even after Mahmudullah had suffered a debilitating calf strain.

"If you look at the wicket, [262] is chaseable," Gulbadin said. "But we didn't bowl in the right area in the first ten overs, and they scored like 50-something. But those extra runs [cost us]."

It was another chastening day for Rashid Khan, who was denied the wicket of Shakib by an overturned review, and went wicketless in his ten overs. And Gulbadin admitted that, without providing him with full support in the field, Afghanistan were always up against it.

"If we look for Rashid, where I want him, he is trying hard," Gulbadin said. "He giving his 100%, but he's also disappointed about the fielding. One time he's very angry in the field. That's why if you not field well, he also upset.

"Rashid is one of those players, he is trying in every department, especially in fielding, bowling, and also batting. Again, we give it extra runs, and that's why one time Rashid look very upset in the middle. So I asked him just keep relaxed and just focus on your bowling. So I think he missed his momentum there because of fielding."

In reply, Afghanistan mixed up their batting order, with Rahmat Shah stepping up to open alongside Gulbadin in the absence of Hasratullah Zazai. And though they set a platform for their side in an opening stand of 49, no-one was able to go on to a half-century. Samiullah Shinwari impressed in the middle order in his first outing of the tournament, but was left flinging his bat away in anger after being left high and dry on 49 not out.

"The openers didn't do well [earlier], that's why we give the opportunity to Rahmat Shah," Gulbadin said. "He did really well. He batted ten overs, so he fought really well. But, again, we made a lot of mistakes in the fielding. At one time we thought this would be chaseable because we bat to nine, ten - Rashid and Dawlat are also capable of hitting big shots - and Sami also played good innings. So that's why we give the opportunity to Sami."

The ultimate difference, however, came down to Shakib. "He's the world No.1 allrounder," Gulbadin said. "He has a lot of experience, he took his time on the wicket when he batted, and he bowled really well, according to the plan. The wicket was not turning much for them, but he bowled in the right areas, so that's why he got the wickets."