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The first upset of this World Cup. What a massive victory for Afghanistan as they literally blew away England on a surface that produced high scoring matches in both the previous matches. A historic day for Afghanistan cricket and this will surely be etched in the memory of every Afghan fans. That also brings us to the end of our coverage for this encounter. Join us tomorrow again for the clash between Sri Lanka and Australia. Both teams are searching for their first win. On that note, it's time for us to bid a goodbye. This is me (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) signing off also on behalf of my fellow commentator and good mate Pradeep.
Hashmatullah Shahidi (Afghanistan captain): I am quite happy and all team is happy. This is our best win and the confidence will be their for the next games. The whole country will be proud. Lot of credit to the openers for getting us to the start. Again today we faltered in the middle overs. We started brilliantly and the credit for that goes to Gurbaz. Ikram was there with us for the last two years but didn't get enough opportunities. We appreciate his efforts. Again Mujeeb showed how well he batted. In Pakistan he has shown how good he can be and even today when our team needed some crucial runs, he delivered. Our batting line up should have more runs on the board and give something to the spinners. Everyone knows how good the spinners are. Yeah I think Fazal started very well and Mujeeb also bowled well for the first 10 overs. The wicket gave us momentum. When I was batting, I realised it wasn't easy to tackle the spinners. I told the boys that 280-290 could be enough as the pitch would assist the spinners. We had the belief in the team. This is not the first and only win we are looking for. This was our first win but surely not the last one.
Jos Buttler (England captain): Disappointing, having won the toss and electing to field and me missing the ball down the leg-side early on, tough loss to take and obviously couldn't set the tone but congratulations to Afghanistan on the win, they outplayed us today. I think, you always think about execution both with the bat and ball, not at the level we wanted to be, consistently enough, that's the areas we lost the game. You got to find ways and execute your skills. Really skillful attack, fantastic spinners and may be the dew didn't come in as expected and held on the surface with uneven bounce, they put us under lots of pressure and kept always stumps in play and we weren't quite good enough in the day. As a whole we were not at the level we like to be, in World Cups and against good opposition, guys putting under pressure and that's where we need to be. Everyone on the field and we will working on put that right.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman is the Player of the Match! Here's what he has to say: Thanks to the almighty. Very proud moment here in the World Cup and beating the defending champions, great acheievemnt for the whold nation and whole team, hard fought win. As a spinner it's hard to bowl in the powerplay, only two fielders outside, that's something I've been working on and I want to be consistent and powerplay you don't have much options, so I keep it stump to stumps and the same mentality while bowling in the nets too. We knew the dew would play the part, that's why I told the captain that I'll bowl in the powerplay and the wicket was good, little bit of hold for me and the mindset was there, didn't wanted to give much room and keep it wicket to wicket. It's all about the management, they give the confidence and I always prepare in the nets and that's the area I want to contribute as well, 20-25 runs lower down the order always makes the difference. This trophy is the people back home who were affected by the Earthquakes and it's dedicated to them.
Afghanistan won by 69 runs
Rahmanullah Gurbaz 80(57) | Rashid Khan 3/37(9.3) Harry Brook 66(61) | Adil Rashid 3/42(10)
It turned out to be a historic day for Afghanistan as they steamrolled heavyweights England by 69 runs to win their first match of the World Cup 2023 campaign. This is also their 2nd ever win in a 50-over World Cup. England were pushed on the backfoot right from the outset with Fazalhaq Farooqi bowling brilliantly with the new ball. He trapped Jonny Bairstow in his very first over and that put the brakes on the English top order. Joe Root and Dawid Malan started building a partnership and that is when Mujeeb Ur Rahman broke through.
He rattled the stumps of Root with a delivery that kept a tad low. Malan looked unfazed and played some delightful shots until the introduction of Mohammad Nabi again turned the game in favor of Afghanistan. He deceived Malan with his guile as he chipped one straight to the cover fielder. It was Harry Brook who put some pressure back into the Afghan camp with some powerful strokes. Jos Buttler couldn't get going and was castled by a pearler from Naveen Ul Haq which tailed sharply and breached Buttler's defence to rattle the stumps.
The only bright spot for England was Harry Brook as wickets kept tumbling around him. Liam Livingstone played all over a Rashid Khan leg break and was adjudged LBW. Sam Curran tried to build a partnership and that is when Hashmatullah Shahidi brought back his match-up Mohammad Nabi against Curran. It paid rich dividends as Curran nicked a tossed-up delivery outside off straight to the slip fielder. Chris Woakes also got off to a decent start but kept searching for Mujeeb's wrong un which sneaked through Woakes' defence and clattered the stumps.
Harry Brook's wicket was the final nail in the coffin for England as Mujeeb bagged his 3rd. A good partnership was building between Mark Wood and Adil Rashid but it was again the quality of Rashid Khan which brought about the former's downfall. Reece Topley smeared around for a bit and smashed three consecutive boundaries before Rashid Khan castled Mark Wood with a wrong un to seal the deal for Afghanistan. This will definitely rank as one of the biggest World Cup upsets.
40.3 Rashid Khan to Mark Wood, OUT! ALL OVER! AFGHANISTAN TRUMP ENGLAND IN THE WORLD CUP! We have our first upset of this World Cup, what a moment to cherish for Afghan fans after suffering a few defeats to start off their campaign. Defending champions have plenty to ponder as their qualification is hanging by a thread now. Googly, stump to stump and Wood plays all over as he looks to sweep across the line and misses, through to make the mess of the stumps.
Mark Wood b Rashid Khan 18 (22b, 3x4, 0x6)
40.2 Rashid Khan to Reece Topley, short into the batter again, Topley went back and heaves it to wide long-on for another single.
40.1 Rashid Khan to Mark Wood, OH! Drops it short, googly turning into the batter on the stumps. Wood made room and cuts it to deep covers for one.
Three cracking shots from Reece Topley to end the over. An inside edge which ran away down the fine leg region before a flat batted slap and a beautiful unconventional cover drive. 72 more runs needed off 10 overs.
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J Root
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Reece Topley
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Fazalhaq Farooqi
Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
