Defending England crashed to a shock 69-run defeat against Afghanistan in ODI 13 of the ongoing 2023 World Cup, in New Delhi on Sunday. Chasing a target of 285, England were bowled out for 215 in 40.3 overs, falling to Afghan spin magic, which saw Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman get three-wicket hauls.
Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan captain, said, I’m quite happy, all the teammates are happy. This is the best win for us, the confidence will be there for the next game and I’m very proud. The openers get a lot of credit. They gave us a great start but unfortunately we lost back to back wickets in the middle again, lot of credit to the openers though, especially Gurbaz. Ikram was with us for the last 2 years and didn’t get a lot of chances, today I believed in him and gave him a chance and he repaid my faith. Mujeeb batted brilliantly, he led from the front and scored important runs for us. We have to score runs, our batting lineup needs to score more for our spinners. We have a lot of confidence about our spinners. Fazal started very well, the first wicket gave us a lot of momentum. When I was batting, I realized the wicket wasn’t supportive for batters against spinners. I told the boys that 280-290 will be enough when I got back into the dressing room. I want to say that the belief, trust and talent is there. Last couple of games we didn’t finish well but the belief is there. This is just the first win, we are looking for more in the tournament. This was just the first one, not the last one.
