CWC 2023, England vs Afghanistan: Afghanistan stuns the defending Champions England

Afghanistan registered their biggest victory in the history of their cricket as they defeated the defending world champions England. This is the first upset of this World Cup, but Afghanistan deserved this victory as they were ahead of England in every aspect of the game. Afghanistan won the game by 69 runs as England was bowled out on 215 runs.

Talking about the game, England won the toss and opted to field first, Afghanistan started well with some positive intent and strokes from the opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. Afghanistan lost its first wicket on 114 as Ibrahim Zadran was dismissed on 28 by Adil Rashid. Later they lost some quick wickets in the middle overs. Gurbaz scored a brilliant knock of 80 runs helping Afghanistan to start well.

Ikram Alikhil along with Mujeeb Ur Rahman were hitting the ball all around the ground and made some valuable contributions with the bat. Ikram scored a brilliant 58 and Mujeeb did the final touches with his cameo of 28 runs off just 16 balls.

Afghanistan was bowled out on 284 runs setting a target of 285 runs to England.

Chasing the total, England lost Jonny Bairstow early at the start later, Joe Root was also dismissed in quick succession. Later Malan and Brook tried to steady the partnership, but Dawid Malan was dismissed by Nabi which resulted in England losing their top-three batters early in the game.

England started to lose quick wickets in the middle, only Harry Brook was the standout performer for England as he scored 66 runs. Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman rattled the stumps of the English batters as both the bowlers scalped three wickets each, resulting in Afghanistan winning the game by defeating the world champions England and etching the moment in the history of Afghanistan cricket.

Mujeeb Ur Rahman was adjudged the Player of the Match for his brilliant spell of 10-51-3 and a fantastic batting cameo of 28 off just 16. England is looking in deep trouble with this loss against Afghanistan as they now have lost 2 matches in this World Cup and another defeat will take England back home.