Afghanistan VS England || First surprise match of World cup 2023 🏏
AFGHANISTAN CRICKET BOARD
The first surprise of the World Cup came from Afghanistan team. Afghanistan beat defending champions England to win their second World Cup match in history. Before this match no one could have thought that Afghanistan will win the match against England. Everyone assumed that the English would win easily against Afghanistan. In the last World Cup, this Afghanistan team was easily defeated by the England team led by Morgan. However, the Afghans completely changed the context of India's World Cup. Afghanistan's beaten England for the first time in World Cup history.
The match between Afghanistan and England was played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, India. England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and decided to bowl at the beginning of the match. Like the match against Bangladesh, the English had a plan to stop the opponent with few runs by bowling first in the beginning. But the England bowlers failed to execute that plan exactly.
In this match, two inform betters Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran came to open for Afghanistan. Both of them made the record pair for Afghanistan. They completed the team's hundred in just the 12th over. Rahmanullah Gurbaz can be credited with getting Afghanistan off to such a good start. This hard hitting batsman completed his half century in just 33 balls in this match. Although Ibrahim Jadran gave him good support, he conceded several dot balls. In the team's field of 114 runs, Ibrahim Zadran was bowled by leg-spinner Adil Rashid and took the way to the pavilion.
After a great start to the match, Afghanistan failed to continue their run of form. After the departure of Ibrahim Zadran, they lost three valuable wickets for just 30 runs. At one point, Afghanistan became a team of six wickets for 190 runs. Low middle order batsman Ikram Alikhil and two lower oder batsmen Rashid Khan - Mujeeb ur Rahman took the team to a strong position from that situation. Afghanistan had a chance to cross 300 runs in the match. However, the team failed to do so by losing consecutive wickets. Afghanistan's innings stopped at 284 runs.
After batting, Afghanistan also made a great start to the bowling. Faizlhaq Farooqi dismissed Jonny Bairstow on the first ball of his over. Mujeeb ur Rahman bowled Joe Root, who came to bat at number three after Jonny Bairstow's departure, with a superb ball. After Root's departure, England lost one wicket after another, but Harry Brook, a 24-year-old young batsman, continued to lead the team by holding on to one end. However, due to the lack of cooperation from the team's players, the victory of the Afghans was confirmed when Harry Brook left in the end. The English were all out for just 215 runs.
Afghanistan won the match by 69 runs with an outstanding bowling performance. This is the first time in the history of the World Cup that Afghanistan won against England. This is their 2nd win in ICC ODI World Cup. Before this, Afghanistan won the first World Cup in 2015. It goes without saying that Afghanistan's confidence will increase a thousandfold as a result of this victory. On the other hand, with this loss, the road to the semi-finals of the World Cup became more difficult for the England.