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Defending World Champions England, suffered a shock 69-run defeat to Afghanistan. The Three Lions who won the toss, opted to put Afghanistan into bat.

This decision by captain Jos Buttler turned into a doomed one. Afghan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (80 off 57 balls) and Ibrahim Zadran (28 off 48 balls), put on 114 for the first wicket, off just 16.4 overs.

Thereafter, a collapse would ensue as Hashmatullah Shahidi’s men went from 114-1 to 190-6! The World Champions appeared to be back in the game.

Afghanistan’s spin-twins Mujeeb Ur-Rahman (28 off 16 balls) and Rashid Khan, (23 runs off 22 balls), put on 43 for the seventh wicket.

Ikram Alikhil ( 58 0ff 66 balls) gave further emphasis to the Afghanistan total at the back end. This allowed the Asian side to get to 284 all out.

With England’s batting line-up, this didn’t seem to be the biggest target to chase, but the Afghans are a dangerous side and have a varied and skilled bowling attack. Write them off at your will.

It can be argued, this is something that Jos Buttler’s England did. A 69-run defeat is quite a thumping victory.

England in reply were only able to get to 215 all out. Despite Harry Brooks’ best efforts (66 off 61 balls), no other England batsmen made a score which would help the world champions get close to the winning target.

England and Afghanistan both have one win and two defeats in their first three games. Afghanistan are up against New Zealand on Wednesday.
As for World Cup winners England, face in form South Africa on Saturday.

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