England suffers upset for the fifth time
- 1992 vs Zimbabwe, lost by nine runs
- 2011 vs Ireland, lost by three wickets
- 2011 vs Bangladesh, lost by two wickets
- 2015 vs Bangladesh, lost by 15 runs
- 2023 vs Afghanistan, lost by 69 runs
(The England team has also become a victim of upsets by losing to Netherlands twice in the T-20 World Cup.)
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The British are stuck in a spin
Even though Afghanistan comes at the bottom in the world rankings, they have world class players who play very aggressive cricket. Especially three quality spinners are capable of destroying any batting line-up. Same thing happened in this match also. Rashid Khan, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman and Mohammad Nabi together took eight out of 10 wickets. Rashid Khan dismissed Liam Livingstone (10), Adil Rashid (20) and Mark Wood (18). Mohammad Nabi became the victim of Dawid Malan (32) and Sam Curran (10), while Joe Root (9), Harry Brook (66) and Chris Woakes (9) became the victims of Mujeeb-ur-Rahman. For England, no batsman could survive except Harry Brook (66 runs in 61 balls).
Batsmen created real pressure
Afghanistan made a solid start when they were sent in to bat first. Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who failed in the first two matches, added 114 runs in the first wicket partnership. Gurbaz was especially in great form, showing his flair by hitting a six off Chris Woakes in the very third over. Afghanistan’s hundred runs were scored in 77 balls. At one point, after 114 runs without loss, Afghanistan lost four wickets for 38 runs.
Ikram Alikhali scored 58 runs in 66 balls and took the team’s total to 284. For England, Adil Rashid took three wickets for 42 runs in ten overs while Mark Wood took two wickets. Curran gave 46 runs in four overs and Chris Woakes gave 41 runs in four overs and both did not get wickets.