England suffer defeat to Afghanistan in huge Cricket World Cup upset

15 October 2023 , 15:59

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Fazalhaq Farooqi of Afghanistan celebrates the wicket of Jonny Bairstow (Image: Getty)

England cricketers added another World Cup shocker to their cannon to lose to Afghanistan for the first time and leave their title defence hanging by a thread.

A flat, error-strewn performance against a side that had only ever beaten Scotland before in a World Cup was a reminder of the bad old days of English ineptitude at the global showpiece.

And this defeat by 69 runs will sit very comfortably alongside the 2015 loss to Bangladesh, or the 2011 humbling by Ireland when England were always good value for an upset.

Those days had largely been put behind them over the past eight years as they grew into the dominant force in white ball cricket and with the silverware to prove it.

And even on the odd occasion when they were unexpectedly beaten they could rightly call it a hiccup and swiftly return to their minimum standards of excellence.

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But after a mauling by New Zealand and then this utter thrashing from Afghanistan, claims of a blip can be ignored with a reassessment of where they stand in this tournament now required.

And while the focus is understandably on where England have fallen short as befits the expectations on the 2019 winners, a huge amount of respect and credit goes to an Afghan side who have been working tirelessly for a win like this for so long.

England suffer defeat to Afghanistan in huge Cricket World Cup upset

Mark Wood is bowled by Rashid Khan for the final wicket

Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the catalyst for the performance with a rip-roaring 80 at the top of the order before Ikram Alikhil’s 58 and a few further cameos took them to a more than handy 284 all out.

The sight of England’s trio of spinners combining to take 5-94 from 24 overs between them was inspiration enough for the three Afghan twirlers of high quality pedigree who snaffled 8-104 of their own.

And any questions as to whether the World’s best T20 bowler Rashid Khan could deliver his shortened brilliance on the biggest stage across ten overs was emphatically answered with his 3-37.

Only Harry Brook with 66 from 61 balls found his mojo with the bat, while there were plenty of areas of concern for Jos Buttler with both bat and in the field, not least himself in both departments.

England's Adil Rashid speaks to his teammates (Getty)

The tone was set with Afghanistan’s fast start after being inserted. Battling back from a 24hr tummy bug to continue in the side, Chris Woakes might have been feeling just as sick as he was on Friday as his opening three over spell disappeared for 31.

Their 79-0 from 10 overs was their best ever World Cup powerplay as Gurbaz targeted Woakes and Sam Curran with skill and ruthless efficiency. An opening stand of 114 was eventually ended by Adil Rashid as Ibrahim Zadran became the first of four catches for Root.

Liam Livingstone followed up with a tidy spell of 1-33 from the first time he bowled a full 10 overs in an ODI, but he should have had two if only Buttler hadn’t fumbled a crucial stumping chance to remove Alikhil.

A target of 285 was one that was always going to take a bit of chasing, but England would have felt buoyed by the way that India had chased something similar against the same team on the same ground in 35 overs just a few days ago.