Afghanistan team recorded their second win in the ODI Cricket World Cup history and first-ever ODI World Cup match victory against an ICC Full Member or a Test member after comfortably beating defending champions England by 69 runs at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
Before that 13th game of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India, nobody would imagine Afghanistan would stun the defending champions in this way.
Arun Jaitley Stadium (Delhi) hosted that game where the English captain Jos Buttler chose to field first after winning the toss.
Article Contents:
Afghanistan’s fearless batting
Horrible England’s unsuccessful chasing
Key facts at the end of this match
One key question after this game
One lesson from this match
England vs Afghanistan: Afghanistan had a strong start and scored 284 runs
Afghan openers got a strong start as they set up the 114-run opening partnership in 16.4 overs. While the opener Ibrahim Zadran scored 28 runs, his opening partner Rahmanullah Gurbaz batted strongly and scored 80 off 57 balls (eight fours and four sixes) before a run-out.
On his return, wicketkeeper-batter Ikram Alikhil scored the crucial 58 runs in 66 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes. After the opening partnership was broken, Afghanistan were losing wickets at regular intervals as once they were struggling at 190/6.
While Ikram scored crucial runs late in the innings, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman had some important support with 23 and 28 runs, respectively.
Finally, Afghanistan scored 284 all out in 49.5 overs. It was Afghanistan’s second-highest ODI World Cup total after 288 all out against West Indies at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
Among the English bowlers, leg-spinner Adil Rashid bagged three wickets (3/37), while the right-arm fast bowler Mark Wood collected two wickets (2/50).
England vs Afghanistan: Strong Afghan bowling forced horrible England batting performance
In reply, Afghan bowlers never gave the chance to settle down the English batters as the defending champions were losing regular wickets from the beginning of the innings.
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Only Harry Brook showed some fightback with the impressive 66 runs in 61 balls with the help of seven fours and only six. However, he had no strong partner support as the opener Dawid Malan was the second-highest scorer in that innings with 32 runs, and the lower-order Adil Rashid (20) was the only other to reach the 20-run mark in that horrible innings.
England were bowled out for 215 runs in 40.3 overs as the Afghans claimed a big win. At the end of the game, Afghanistan beat England by 69 runs.
All the Afghan bowlers delivered strongly, where the spinners Rashid Khan (3/37), Mujeeb-ur-Rahman (3/51), and Mohammad Nabi (2/16) shared eight wickets among themselves. Pacers Fazalhaq Farooqi (1/50) and Naveen-ul-Haq (1/44) also took one crucial wicket each.
Mujeeb-ur-Rahman won the Player of the Match award for his crucial all-round performances (28 runs in 16 balls and 10-1-51-3).
Key facts at the end of this match
Image Credit: X
It was Afghanistan’s second win in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup history. Their first such win was against Scotland at Dunedin during a Group Stage match at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
It was Afghanistan’s first victory against an ICC Full Member or a Test member in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
England became the first team in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup history to lose against every present ICC Full Member or Test member. On this note, when they suffered a defeat against Ireland in the Group Stage at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the Irish team wasn’t an ICC Full Member.
One key question after this game
Will this defeat cost the defending champions England to miss out on the tournament Semi-finals?
One lesson from this match
Don’t take the Afghans lightly anyway.
