Afghanistan tame England

“Cricket is the only source of happiness in Afghanistan, recently there was an Earthquake, and many lost everything, this will give them some happiness — this is for them.”

Rashid Khan

Be it in sports or life when the expectations are low, the lesser disappointments show up. Then you stop being in a hurry, remain calm and composed, the inner peace is installed and you start enjoying whatever you are doing while the whole world remains upset — that is when the upsets in sports happen. And, in cricket, they come from unlikely sources in the mega-events that simply become the ideal advertisement of this game of glorious uncertainty.

After being steamrolled by Bangladesh and hammered by the all-conquering Indians — Afghanistan’s next appointment in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 was against the defending champions England who rediscovered their mojo by burying Bangladesh in the mountains of Dharamsala.

Rahmatullah Gurbaz Ibrahim has had an excellent 2023 while batting together. There have only been three ODI opening partnerships of 200-plus in 2023, and this Afghanistan pair has scored two of them, which is remarkable.

It was a bright start for Afghanistan, at the expense of Chris Woakes, whose expected bowling average with the new ball is 39.99 which is the worst since 2014 according to CricViz. 31 of the 35 runs they scored in the first five overs came while Woakes was bowling. He began with 5 wides off the game’s first ball, and while Reece Topley has kept things quiet at the other end, Gurbaz in particular has enjoyed himself against him.

In the first ten overs, the Afghans set the tone for a challenging total but they have a history of collapsing — at Delhi, it did not happen, rather, maturity was shown by the middle and lower order batsmen, who arrested collapse whenever the English bowlers struck.

There were meaty blows at the end that took Afghanistan to 284 where against pace they scored 189 runs by losing three wickets — in the first ten overs they scored 10.8 runs per over against the over-pitched deliveries and 8.5 against short-of-a-length on either side of the wicket.

The English spinners had a great outing though picking five wickets for 89 at an economy rate of under 4 runs per over, which was an indication that the Afghan spinners may enjoy a great evening under the floodlights at Delhi.

The breakthrough came from Fazalhaq Farroqi whose inswinger left Jonny Bairstow clueless and then Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Mohammad Nabi, and Rashid Khan took over.

Mujeeb ur Rahman cleaned up Joe Root with a flipper forcing Root to go backward where he was in no position to adjust for the ball which kept low. Nabi at Dawid Malan holed out at short cover, Liam Livingstone played all around a straight one from Rashid Khan, and in between Naveen ul Haq had broken through the defence of England skipper Jos Buttler with a mind-blowing inswinger.

Harry Brook was the lone fighter and kept the hopes alive for England — but the Afghan spinners were on a roll — they were enjoying in the capital city and dished out all the tricks under the belt to keep England checked — Mujeeb’s carom ball and quicker ones were like the rattlesnake while Rashid’s leg-spin and wrong-un were like a spitting cobra against whom the English turned blue by the venom.

Afghanistan have broken the jinx in the Cricket World Cup by taming England who played their first-ever match in 1739 whereas Afghanistan in 2001 and in - 2023, at the heartbeat of the once-great empire of the Mughals — England has surrendered.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar