Afghanistan thrash defending champ England by 69 runs

Afghanistan thrashed defending champ England by 69 runs in a major upset of World Cup 2023 on Sunday.

Afghanistan came into the match having lost 16 of their last 17 World Cup games. This stunning upset gives Afghanistan their second-ever World Cup win to add to a lone victory over Scotland at the 2015 tournament.

Afghanistan team had set a 285-run target for England while put into batting first at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.

But the world champion could only post 215 runs in the chase of the target and were all out in 40.3 overs.

English batsmen Harry Brook and Dawid Malan offered some resistance to the Afghan bowling attack, adding 66 and 32 runs respectively.

Afghanistan pacer Mujeeb-ur-Rehman and Rashid Kahn took three wickets each while Muhammad Nabi picked up two.

Here is the England Scorecard:

Earlier, England won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Coming on to the field first, opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz hit a blistering 80 runs off 57 balls with eight fours and four sixes to register his eighth score in excess of fifty in his brief ODI career.

England’s Chris Woakes conceded 31 off his first three overs.

Afghanistan’s last four wickets added a crucial 94 runs to the total with the recalled Ikram Alikhil hitting 58 runs.

For England, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood claimed three and four wickets respectively.