England’s chances of retaining the Cricket World Cup are looking very slim indeed after a shock defeat by 69 runs to Afghanistan in Delhi on Sunday.
Jos Buttler’s side have now lost two of the three games they have played in the group stage, and while their hopes of reaching the semi-finals are not over, there is a huge amount of work to do from here on in.
It was a famous win for Afghanistan, but not a close or dramatic one really, as they dominated the favourites for the match.
Hashmatullah Shahidi’s team batted well, making 284 all out, thanks to half centuries from Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ikram Alikhil.
The English batsmen could not settle, other than one notable exception, and the chase looked doomed pretty early on.
Harry Brook was the standout as he made 66, but outside of the Yorkshireman, only Dawid Malan (32) managed more than 20.
Afghanistan had lost their first two matches to Bangladesh and India, but were thoroughly deserving of this victory as they climb off the bottom of the group stage table.
Buttler said after the stunning result: ‘You’ve got to let these defeats hurt. No point just trying to move on very quickly although you have to do it as quick as you can. Let it hurt for a bit, reflect and work on the areas we need to get better.
‘We must show some real resilience. We’ve got a lot of character in the group, guys who have been a lot of good times and a few tough times too. We’ve got a lot of resilience and will come back fighting.
‘As a whole, we’re not quite at the level we’d like to be and in World Cups, that’s where we need to be. Everyone on the field and off will be working to put that right.’
The underdogs started brilliantly, batting first and their opening partnership putting on 114 for the first wicket.
Adil Rashid got Ibrahim Zadran caught by Joe Root to begin a decent fightback from England as Rahmat Shah arrived and went cheaply, before the impressive Rahmanullah Gurbaz was run out on 80, leaving Afghanistan 122-3.
From there on in England took wickets at fairly regular intervals but the Afghan batters were all contributing, most notably wicketkeeper Ikram Alikhil who made 58 before being caught off Reece Topley.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman was also crucial as he thumped 28 off just 16 balls before Root caught him off Mark Wood’s bowling.
Afghanistan were eventually bowled out for 284 after 49.5 overs, so an excellent effort and a tricky-looking target for the Englishmen in conditions and against bowling that they would not consider their favourites.
England’s response started badly, with Jonny Bairstow given out lbw for just two, although he was left fuming with the decision.
Given out by umpire Rod Tucker, the Yorkshireman reviewed and the decision stood after wickets and impact very narrowly being given on umpire’s call.
Root went for 11 as one kept low from Mujeeb and bowled him, with Dawid Malan going for 32 as he tamely chipped a drive to be caught off Mohammad Nabi.
Harry Brook was standing firm for England but no one was staying with him. Jos Buttler went for nine, with Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran both managing 10, and when Chris Woakes was bowled by Mujeeb for nine then the game looked over.
With Brook still there then England still had a chance but when Mujeeb got him for 66 then it really was all over.
Adil Rashid and Mark Wood actually batted quite nicely at the death, but there was far too much for them to do and England were bowled out for 215 after just 40.3 overs.
England are back in action against South Africa on 21 October in Mumbai.
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