WC2023: Afghanistan win against England by 69 runs
Afghanistan defeated reigning champions England by 69 runs in Delhi on Sunday, causing one of the greatest surprises in the history of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Afghanistan thus achieved their first One-Day International victory over England. Flamboyant opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz produced a scorching 80 as Afghanistan reached 284 batting first, helped by some lusty late hitting. In response, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman each took three wickets to enable Afghanistan defeat England by a score of 215.
While this was Afghanistan’s first win in the competition following two losses, England suffered their second defeat in three games. Rashid Khan (3/37) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3/51) were the Afghan bowlers of choice. England’s batting performance was dreadful, with Harry Brook (66 off 61) the lone bright spot.
England got off to a shaky start in their chase, with Fazalhaq Farooqi taking an early wicket in the shape of Jonny Bairstow, who was caught in front of the wicket in the second over. In the beginning, Farooqi produced speed and caused problems for the English hitters. The Kotla pitch featured something for spinners as well, as the ball stayed low and spun under lights. Joe Root, who had hit back-to-back 50, was undone by a Mujeeb ball that stayed low and smashed onto the stumps.
Dawis Malan batted conservatively for 32 off 39 balls before falling to a straightforward catch at short extra cover off Mohammad Nabi, as England slumped to 68 for 3. England grossly misjudged the pitch, as their choice to bowl first backfired, with the surface providing adequate assistance to the bowlers in the second session. Skipper Jos Buttler also failed to save his team, as he was bowled out by Naveen-ul-Haq with an after-pitch ball. England kept losing wickets at regular intervals, with Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, and Chris Woakes all failing with the bat.
Primarily because to Gurbaz’s amazing 57-ball 80 Afghanistan set England a goal of 285, which should be easily doable on this high-scoring pitch. However, it was with the ball that they actually excelled, and while spin has shown to be their main strength, their seamers made some of England’s appear rather third-rate – though to be fair, it had been the one area at which they had genuinely succeeded. The efforts of Naveen-ul-Haq and Fazal Farooqi were not rewarded, with many of England’s boundaries coming from edges and mishits, but Naveen supplied the day’s defining moment with a superb delivery that destroyed Buttler’s middle stump.
England’s tournament isn’t done yet, but the objective ahead is clear: prevent another upset against Sri Lanka and the Netherlands while beating three of South Africa, India, Australia, and Pakistan and dramatically improve their net run rate. At the moment, the idea seemed absurdly distant.
Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan captain: “I am quite happy and all my teammates are happy. This was the best win. The confidence will be there for the next game and the whole country will be happy and proud with this win. They get a lot of credit. Unfortunately, we had back-to-back wickets again today. We have to think about that. We had a good start and credit goes to Gurbaz for that. He was with us from last two years but did not get too many chances. Me and the coach believed in him and we really appreciate his effort. I think, yes. Against Pakistan in Sri Lanka, he batted beautifully. Today, he scored important runs for us. We have to score runs for that. The whole world knows how good they are. I am very proud of them today. Fazal started very well, along with Mujeeb. That wicket was very important. I realised the wicket was not supporting the batters when batting against the spinners. When I went to the pavilion, I felt 280-290 would be enough on this track. The belief is there, the trust is there and the talent is also there. Last couple of games, we did not finish well. Looking forward to the rest of the tournament. Hopefully we can be positive. This was the first win for us but not the last one.”
Jos Buttler, England captain: “It was disappointing, having won the toss and elected to bowl. Missing the first ball down the leg side sort of set the tone. Congratulations to Afghanistan, they outplayed us today. It was a bit of bad execution, both with the bat and the ball. It was not at the level we wanted it to be consistently enough. That was the area where we lost the game. They have a really skilful attack. The dew did not come in as much as we expected. The ball held up and there was indifferent bounce. They kept the stumps in play and we were not quite good enough today. You got to let these defeats hurt. Let it hurt, try to figure out where we need to get better. Lots of resilience in the group, lots of characters who have been through some good times and through some tough times. As a whole, we are not at the level we would like to be. In a World Cup, that is where we want to be. On the field and off it, we will be trying to put it right.”
