Afghanistan stun defending champions England

Rashid Khan and Afghanistan celebrate - Getty  

• First major upset in 2023 Cricket World Cup

DELHI: Afghanistan ended their 14-match losing streak in ODI World Cups when they pulled off a shock 69-run win over defending champions England at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here Sunday.

Before yesterday the only other win in World Cups for Afghanistan was against Scotland at Dunedin in 2015. 

It was bound to happen sooner or later that Afghanistan, who has been improving with every game would cause an upset and yesterday they did it much to the joy of Afghan cricket supporters.

England were done in by Afghanistan’s spin trio of Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi who between them took eight wickets to bowl them out for 215 in 40.3 overs as they tried to chase down a target of 285. It was the first time England had lost eight wickets to spin in a World Cup match.

England’s troubles began when Fazalhaq Farooqi trapped Jonny Bairstow lbw in the second over. Mujeeb who opened the bowling then castled Joe Root for 11, and Nabi captured the wicket of Dawid Malan for 32. When Naveen ul Haq sent England captain Jos Buttler packing with a brute of a delivery for nine, England had already started to slide down the slope. Harry Brook, the last of the recognised batsman tried to wrest the initiative back with a fighting knock of 66 off 61 balls (7 fours, 1 six), but with no support forthcoming from the other end, the rest of the England batting crumbled as the spinners made a merry feast of them. 

It was a complete team effort by Afghanistan after Rahmanullah Gurbaz had given them a flying start with the bat racing to a 57-ball innings of 80 (8 fours, 4 sixes) out of an opening stand of 114 with Ibrahim Zadran. Although they lost their way a bit in the middle, they managed to pull up their socks and drag themselves back on track to post a challenging total of 284 with Ikram Alikhil providing a late spurt to the innings with 58 off 66 balls that would have hurt England after they had Afghanistan at 190-6. – (ST)

Scores:

Afghanistan 284 (49.5) (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 80, Ibrahim Zadran 28, Ikram Alikhil 58, Rashid Khan 23, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 28, Adil Rashid 3/42, Mark Wood 2/50)

England 215 (40.3) (Dawid Malan 32, Harry Brook 66, Adil Rashid 20, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 3/51, Mohammad Nabi 2/16, Rashid Khan 3/37)