CWC2023: Afghanistan stun England in major upset , spinners dominate

 



 World Cup 2023 gets its first major upset .  Afghanistan blew past champions England on Sunday.  First, Delhi saw the power of the Afghan batters.  After that, the Afghan bowlers reigned supreme against the English batsmen.  Afghanistan scored 284 runs and then dismissed   England for 215 runs.



 England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and sent Afghanistan to bat.  The aim was to pick up quick wickets and restrict Afghanistan to few runs.  But the two Afghan openers together picked up 114 runs.  When Ibrahim Zadran (28)  got out, Afghanistan started smelling big runs.  But that hope was dashed by losing successive wickets.  From 114 for no wicket, Afghanistan's score suddenly became 152 for 4 wickets.


 Rahmanullah Gurbaz laid the foundation for Afghanistan's big runs.  He scored a dazzling  80 runs with full of breathtaking strokeplay .  But he missed the hundred because of an unfortunate run out .  Playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, the opener scored a dashing 80 off 57 balls to take the team to a good position against England.  Ikram Alikhil scored  runs in the middle order.  He scored 58 runs off 66 balls.  Mujib ur Rahman 

 scored crucial runs in the end overs .  He played an important innings of 28 runs from 16 balls and took the team to a fighting score of 284 runs. Rashid also contributed a vital 23 runs .


England's bowlers initially struggled to pick  wickets.  Buttler bowled Chris Woakes with the new ball in just 4 overs.  Woakes gave 41 runs in those 4 overs.  Sam Curran gave 46 runs in 4 overs.  Buttler had to rely on erratic bowlers like Liam Livingstone and Joe Root as two of the team's key bowlers gave away runs.  They both took one wicket each.  Adil Rashid is the most successful bowler of the team.  He took 3 wickets.  Mark Wood took 2 wickets for 50 runs in 9 overs. Topley took a wicket.


 England went into bat with a formidable target of 284 runs and lost Jonny Bairstow early on.  He got out lbw to Farooqui with 2 runs off 4 balls.  Joe Root (11) could not stay at the crease for long.  Afghan spinner Mujeeb's ball suddenly kept low and bowled him .  Opener Dawid Malan was dismissed for 32 runs.  England's middle order collapsed soon after.  Jos Buttler (9), Liam Livingstone (10) and Sam Curran (10) did not score as many runs as they batted in pathetic fashion and struggled .  


 Harry Brook (66) was fighting a lone battle .  But no one could accompany him.  The pacers bowled well along with the Afghanistan's spinners.  Fazal Haque Farooqui and Naveen Ul Haque put the batsmen through a tough test.  Root & co  were having trouble making runs against them.  The Afghans trapped the batters with  slowers and  with the right line, length.  Mujeeb should be praised.  The English batters could not understand the 22-year-old young spinner's deliveries .  Mujeeb took 3 wickets with 51 runs in 10 overs.  Rashid Khan also took 3 wickets.  Mohammad Nabi took 2 wickets as they took Afghanistan to a famous victory over the reigning champions. Mujeeb was declared the player of the match.




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