New Delhi: Their bowlers were slammed all over the park by the Afghans but a target of 285 never looked like a huge total to chase for England when they walked in for the chase. The English had considered everything barring Afghanistan spinners who had other plans in mind as they spun their web around Jos Butler's unit and ended up handing over the defending champions a shocking defeat.
Fazalhaq Farooqi struck in the second over of the innings trapping Jonny Bairstow LBW. Joe Root was the next to go after Mujeeb ur Rehman cleaned him up. England were 33/2 as a result and the partnership between Dawid Malan and Harry Brook was brewing before the calamity struck again.
Malan's soft dismissal on 32 opened the floodgates and wickets kept tumbling from one end. Brook was resilient and kept fighting from one end but was eventually castled by Mujeeb. The continuous flow of wickets came to an end with Mark Wood's stumps being shattered by a delivery from Rashid Khan and Afghanistan registered a historic win by 69 runs over the title defenders.
Earlier in the day, England won the toss and chose to bowl first and Afghanistan responded in a hard-hitting manner as their openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran tore apart the English bowling unit in the first 16 overs.
Gurbaz (80 runs off 57 balls) was the protagonist in the story as he adopted aggression right from the start. The openers put on a 114-run stand scoring well over run a ball. Afghanistan, however, lost a flurry of wickets after Zadran's dismissal.
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They were soon reduced to 190/6 but the lower-order batters came to the rescue. Ikram Alikhil stood firm at one end while Rashid Khan (23) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (28) chipped in with some crucial contributions. Ikram stitched a knock of 58 runs including two maximums and he played a vital role in helping the team post 284 on the scoreboard.
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