In a surprising turn of events, Afghanistan, which is the youngest team in the ICC World Cup 2023 with an average age of around 24, defeated the defending champions of the 2019 World Cup, England, today at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. The English team on the other hand is the oldest team this year.
With this, the Afghani team registered their first victory in the tournament. This is also the first time that Afghanistan has beaten England in international cricket history. Overall, this is Afghanistan’s second victory in 18 matches in ODI World Cup history.
After this record-breaking and historical showdown, Afghanistan, who earlier sat at the bottom of the points table, jumped to the sixth position right below England. The defending champions have now lost two of their first three matches in the tournament.
England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bowl first, following which Afghanistan put a defendable score of 284 on the scoreboard.
Afghanistan started strong with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran giving their team the first 100-run partnership in World Cup history. However, England’s Adil Rashid broke the partnership following which Afghanistan endured a mini-collapse. Zadran fell for 28 runs, while Gurbaz walked back to the pavilion for 80(57).
Afghanistan lost three quick wickets and stared at a scoreboard showing 122/3 in 18.5 overs. Even as their wickets continued to tumble, Afghanistan held strong and Rashid Khan and Ikram Alikhil later took control. However, Rashid fell for 23(22) and Alikhil scored 58(66).
In their response, England saw a quick fall of wickets even before they touched 100. The team lost Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root very early in the game. Bairstow was dismissed by Fazalhaq Farooqi for 2, while Joe Root was taken out by Mujeeb Ur Rahman for 11(17). The rest of the England team also crumbled under the attack from the Afghani bowlers who took England out at 215 in 40.3 overs, giving their team a 69-run victory.
Post the match, England’s Jos Buttler said they should let the defeat hurt for a bit instead of moving on. He added that bowling-wise the team is not at a level where it would like to be.
The winning captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said today’s win was the best for the team and will only add to their confidence.