ENG vs AFG: England’s World Cup hopes were dealt a huge blow by Afghanistan in Delhi as they slumped to a humiliating 69-run loss. It was their first defeat to Afghanistan in any format and it left them with little margin for error in their remaining six group matches.
Afghanistan posted 284 all out after England’s bowlers were wayward and ineffective, and then skittled out England for 215 under the lights.
Jonny Bairstow was trapped lbw by left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi in the second over, Joe Root was castled by spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman for 11, and Dawid Malan lobbed a simple catch to extra cover.
Harry Brook, who scored 66, was the only one who put up a fight – skipper Jos Buttler was the fourth to go as he was clean bowled by seamer Naveen-ul-Haq.
England’s seamers had earlier given Afghanistan a flying start of 100-0 in 13 overs, with opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz smashing 80 from 57 balls. Adil Rashid brought back some control with 3-42 but more poor bowling at the end, along with 58 from Ikram Alikhil, took Afghanistan to a respectable total.
England’s sloppy start allowed Afghanistan to score 79 runs in the first 10 overs, the most costly powerplay in the first innings of the tournament so far.
Elegant right-hander Gurbaz played well but Woakes, and Sam Curran, who replaced him after three overs for 30 runs, kept bowling too wide. Woakes gave away 41 runs from four overs without taking a wicket. Curran’s four overs went for 0-46.
Only Reece Topley bowled well at the start, but he also bowled four of England’s 14 wides and no-balls later on.
Rashid seemed to have pulled England back. He bowled a maiden after the first drinks break and then had opener Ibrahim Zadran caught at mid-wicket and Rahmat Shah stumped in seven balls.
Gurbaz was then foolishly run out by his skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi, which allowed Liam Livingstone and Joe Root to assist Rashid with a wicket each.
But the 46th over bowled by Curran went for 18 and gave Afghanistan some momentum which England could not stop. Afghanistan’s bowlers were much more threatening.
Bairstow was angry with his decision – replays showed the lbw call was umpire’s call on impact and leg stump – but it came after an impressive spell of speed and swing from Farooqi after England’s seamers had been tame.
The spinners, including T20 star Rashid Khan who had Liam Livingstone lbw for 10 and sealed the win by bowling Mark Wood, then took over and England had no reply.
Mujeeb confused Chris Woakes in one over – having an lbw call overturned before finally bowling him – before Brook was caught behind in the youngster’s next over to end the match.
England have no option now. They have to improve fast or their reign as 50-over world champions will end in disgrace. This is only Afghanistan’s second win at a 50-over World Cup and their noisy fans celebrated wildly in the stadium.
ENG vs AFG: Full scorecard
Afghanistan (50 ovs maximum)
| BATTING | R | B | M | 4s | 6s | SR | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rahmanullah Gurbaz | run out (sub [DJ Willey]/†Buttler) | 80 | 57 | 87 | 8 | 4 | 140.35 | ||
| Ibrahim Zadran | c Root b Rashid | 28 | 48 | 73 | 3 | 0 | 58.33 | ||
| Rahmat Shah | st †Buttler b Rashid | 3 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 37.50 | ||
| Hashmatullah Shahidi (c) | b Root | 14 | 36 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 38.88 | ||
| Azmatullah Omarzai | c Woakes b Livingstone | 19 | 24 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 79.16 | ||
| Ikram Alikhil † | c Curran b Topley | 58 | 66 | 92 | 3 | 2 | 87.87 | ||
| Mohammad Nabi | c Root b Wood | 9 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 60.00 | ||
| Rashid Khan | c Root b Rashid | 23 | 22 | 37 | 3 | 0 | 104.54 | ||
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | c Root b Wood | 28 | 16 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 175.00 | ||
| Naveen-ul-Haq | run out (†Buttler) | 5 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 83.33 | ||
| Fazalhaq Farooqi | not out | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 | ||
| Extras | (lb 1, nb 3, w 11) | 15 | |||||||
| TOTAL | 49.5 Ov (RR: 5.69) | 284 | |||||||
| Fall of wickets: 1-114 (Ibrahim Zadran, 16.4 ov), 2-122 (Rahmat Shah, 18.4 ov), 3-122 (Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 18.5 ov), 4-152 (Azmatullah Omarzai, 25.6 ov), 5-174 (Hashmatullah Shahidi, 32.1 ov), 6-190 (Mohammad Nabi, 36.1 ov), 7-233 (Rashid Khan, 44.1 ov), 8-277 (Ikram Alikhil, 47.6 ov), 9-277 (Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 48.1 ov), 10-284 (Naveen-ul-Haq, 49.5 ov) • DRS | |||||||||
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | 0s | 4s | 6s | WD | NB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Woakes | 4 | 0 | 41 | 0 | 10.25 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Reece Topley | 8.5 | 1 | 52 | 1 | 5.88 | 30 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Sam Curran | 4 | 0 | 46 | 0 | 11.50 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Adil Rashid | 10 | 1 | 42 | 3 | 4.20 | 29 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Mark Wood | 9 | 0 | 50 | 2 | 5.55 | 27 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Liam Livingstone | 10 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 3.30 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Root | 4 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 4.75 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
England (T: 285 runs from 50 ovs)
| BATTING | R | B | M | 4s | 6s | SR | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonny Bairstow | lbw b Fazalhaq Farooqi | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 | ||
| Dawid Malan | c Ibrahim Zadran b Mohammad Nabi | 32 | 39 | 61 | 4 | 0 | 82.05 | ||
| Joe Root | b Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 11 | 17 | 23 | 2 | 0 | 64.70 | ||
| Harry Brook | c †Ikram Alikhil b Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 66 | 61 | 123 | 7 | 1 | 108.19 | ||
| Jos Buttler (c)† | b Naveen-ul-Haq | 9 | 18 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 | ||
| Liam Livingstone | lbw b Rashid Khan | 10 | 14 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 71.42 | ||
| Sam Curran | c Rahmat Shah b Mohammad Nabi | 10 | 23 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 43.47 | ||
| Chris Woakes | b Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 9 | 26 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 34.61 | ||
| Adil Rashid | c Mohammad Nabi b Rashid Khan | 20 | 13 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 153.84 | ||
| Mark Wood | b Rashid Khan | 18 | 22 | 26 | 3 | 0 | 81.81 | ||
| Reece Topley | not out | 15 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 214.28 | ||
| Extras | (lb 4, nb 1, w 8) | 13 | |||||||
| TOTAL | 40.3 Ov (RR: 5.30) | 215 | |||||||
| Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Jonny Bairstow, 1.1 ov), 2-33 (Joe Root, 6.5 ov), 3-68 (Dawid Malan, 12.4 ov), 4-91 (Jos Buttler, 17.2 ov), 5-117 (Liam Livingstone, 20.4 ov), 6-138 (Sam Curran, 27.1 ov), 7-160 (Chris Woakes, 32.6 ov), 8-169 (Harry Brook, 34.2 ov), 9-198 (Adil Rashid, 38.4 ov), 10-215 (Mark Wood, 40.3 ov) • DRS | |||||||||
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | 0s | 4s | 6s | WD | NB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 10 | 1 | 51 | 3 | 5.10 | 31 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Fazalhaq Farooqi | 7 | 0 | 50 | 1 | 7.14 | 23 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Naveen-ul-Haq | 6 | 1 | 44 | 1 | 7.33 | 17 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mohammad Nabi | 6 | 0 | 16 | 2 | 2.66 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Rashid Khan | 9.3 | 1 | 37 | 3 | 3.89 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 2 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 6.50 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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