World Cup 2023 / Afghanistan defeated defending champion England by 69 runs.

World Cup 2023: The biggest upset of the ODI World Cup 2023 happened on Sunday. Afghanistan defeated defending champions England by 69 runs. Afghanistan registered victory after 14 consecutive defeats in the World Cup and defeated the 2019 champions. England won the toss and chose to field at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Afghanistan, batting first, scored 284 runs in 49.5 overs. In reply, the England team was all out after scoring 215 runs.

Afghanistan's spinners were game changers. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan together took 8 wickets. Mujeeb and Rashid got 3 wickets each, while Mohammad Nabi took 2 wickets.

England became victim of upset for the 5th time

The England team became the victim of an upset for the 5th time in ODI World Cup history. Earlier in 1992, the team was defeated by Zimbabwe by 9 runs. In 2011, the team was defeated by Ireland by 3 wickets and Bangladesh by 2 wickets. In 2015 also, Bangladesh had caused an upset by defeating the team by 15 runs.

Now in 2023, Afghanistan tasted the bitter taste of upset in the World Cup for the 5th time by defeating England by 69 runs. Not only this, the England team has also become a victim of upsets by losing to Netherlands twice in the T-20 World Cup.

Naveen and Farooqui also took 1-1 wicket

Afghanistan's spinners took a total of 8 wickets. But the fast bowlers started the fall of wickets. Fazalhaq Farooqui LBWed Jonny Bairstow at the score of 2 runs in his very first over. After him, Naveen-ul-Haq bowled England captain Jos Buttler and pushed the team on the backfoot.

None other than Harry Brook walked from England

England had a bad start to chase the target of 285 runs, the team lost 2 wickets in 7 overs. Jonny Bairstow was out after scoring 2 runs and Joe Root after scoring 11 runs. Partnership started forming in the middle overs, but the team kept losing wickets continuously. Dawid Malan 32, Jos Buttler 9, Liam Livingston 10, Sam Curran 10, Chris Woakes 9, Adil Rashid 20, Mark Wood 18 and Reece Topley could score only 15 runs.

Only Harry Brook from England scored a half-century and scored 66 runs. He was caught by Mujeeb ur Rehman at the hands of wicketkeeper Ikram Alikhil. After his wicket, England's score became 169 runs for 8 wickets. After this the team could add only 46 runs and were all out.

England lost 2 wickets in the first 10 overs

The Afghanistan team, which came out to defend the target of 285 runs, made a good start. The team sent English opener Jonny Bairstow to the pavilion in the second over itself. Joe Root also got bowled in the 7th over. However, the team scored 52 runs in 10 overs.

England's wickets fell like this

First (Jonny Bairstow- 2 runs): The first ball of the second over was bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqui inswinger on good length. The ball hit Bairstow directly on his pads and he became LBW.

Second (Joe Root – 11 runs): The fifth ball of the 7th over was bowled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman, a googly on good length. Root became bold.

Third (David Malan- 32 runs): Mohammad Nabi bowled the fourth ball of the 13th over with a good length flight on the off stump. Malan got caught at covers.

Fourth (Jos Buttler- 9 runs): Naveen-ul-Haq bowled the second ball of the 18th over with a swinger on good length. Jos Buttler got bowled.

Fifth (Liam Livingston - 10 runs) - Rashid Khan bowled a flatter ball on the fourth ball of the 21st over. Livingston got beaten and became LBW.

Sixth (Sam Curran - 10 runs) - On the first ball of the 28th over, Mohammad Nabi gave flight to the ball and Curran was caught by the fielder behind.

Seventh (Chris Woakes - 9 runs) - Mujeeb bowled a full length ball on the last ball of the 33rd over. Vox couldn't understand this. The ball came in and hit the bat of Woakes and hit the stumps.

Eighth - (Harry Brook - 66 runs) - Mujeeb bowled the carrom ball on the second ball of the 35th over. The ball hit the edge of Brook's bat and went into the gloves of wicketkeeper Ikram.

Ninth (Adil Rashid 20 runs) - Rashid Khan bowled leg spin on the fourth ball of the 39th over. Adil Rashid plated and the ball hit the end of the bat and went back into Nabi's lips.

Tenth (Mark Wood 18 runs) - On the third ball of the 41st over, Mark Wood could not read spin wizard Rashid Khan's slider and was bowled.

Ikram scored 58, Mujeeb scored 28 runs.

Afghanistan lost 6 wickets at the score of 190 runs. Hashmatullah Shahidi could score only 14, Azmatullah Omarzai 19 and Mohammad Nabi could score only 9 runs. From here Rashid Khan played an inning of 23 runs, after his dismissal, Mujeeb ur Rahman quickly scored 28 runs in 16 balls. Ikram Alikhil was out after scoring 58 runs and the team's score crossed 275 runs.

Root-Livingston got 1-1 wicket

Leg spinner Adil Rashid from England took maximum 3 wickets. Among fast bowlers, Mark Wood got 2 successes and Reece Topley got one success. Whereas part timers Liam Livingston and Joe Root took one wicket each. Root also took 4 catches in the match.

Gurbaz's half century

Afghanistan's wicketkeeper batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz played a brilliant half-century. He scored 80 runs on just 57 balls. This innings included 8 fours and 4 sixes. Gurbaz has scored 3 fifties and 5 centuries in his career.

Century partnership between Gurbaz-Zadran

Afghanistan's first wicket fell at 114 runs. There was a century partnership for the first wicket between Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. Both added 114 runs on 101 balls. This partnership was broken by Adil Rashid by dismissing Zadran.

Afghanistan scored 79 runs without loss in powerplay.

Batting first, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave a great start to Afghanistan. The team scored 79 runs without any loss in the powerplay.

Playing-11 of both the teams

England: Jos Buttler (captain and wicketkeeper), Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Liam Livingston, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Reece Topley and Adil Rashid.

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Ikram Alikhil, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Naveen-ul-Haq and Fazalhaq Farooqui.