Afghanistan has defeated defending champions England on Sunday in a thrilling match of the cricket World Cup 2023, pulling off a huge upset with a margin of 69 runs.
England captain Jos Butler won the toss, inviting Afghanistan to bat first.
The start of Afghanistan’s innings against England was excellent, with a partnership of 114 runs between opener Rehmanullah Garbaz and Ibrahim Zadran for the first wicket, but then Ibrahim was sent to the pavilion by English bowler Adil Rashid for 28 runs.
After scoring three runs, new batsman Rahmat Shah also fell prey to Adil Rashid while Rahmanullah Garbaz was also run out after scoring 80 runs, and Azmatullah Umarzai was dismissed by Livingstone for 19 runs. However, Ikram Ali supported the team by playing an innings of 58 runs, Rashid Khan scored 23 runs and Mujeebur Rahman scored 28 runs.
Thus, the entire Afghanistan team was bowled out for 284 runs in 49.5 overs. Adil Rashid took three wickets and Mark Wood took two wickets.
Chasing the target of 285 runs, England’s batting suffered from difficulties from the beginning, with a continuous fall of wickets. The English batsmen appeared frozen, except for Harry Brook, none of the batsmen could resist the Afghan bowlers.
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England’s first wicket fell for three when Bearstowe was dismissed for two, then Joe Root for 11 and David Mullan for 32. Apart from this, captain Jos Buttler scored nine runs, Livingston and Sam Curran scored 10, 10, and Chris Woakes scored nine runs. On one side, the wickets of the English team kept falling, while on the other side, Harry Brook scored a half-century and gave the team hope of victory. He was also dismissed for 66 runs.
Adil Rashid scored 20 runs, Mark Wood scored 18 runs and Topley scored 15 runs. The Afghan bowlers controlled the entire English team in 40.3 overs, thus Afghanistan defeated the defending champion England by 69 runs in the World Cup.
Mujeebur Rahman and Rashid Khan took three and three wickets respectively while Mohammad Nabi dismissed two players.