Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s swashbuckling 57-ball 80 and his 114 run first wicket stand with Ibrahim Zadran (28) dented the famed England bowling as Afghanistan put up a fighting 284 before being all out in 49.5 overs out against the defending champions in their ICC World Cup match here on Sunday.
England won the toss and opted to bowl.
Interestingly Afghanistan’s total is only 12 runs more than they managed on here Wednesday night, in a match against India which the hosts won with 15 overs to spare.
Though the defending champions managed to trigger a mini collapse thanks to spinner Adil Rashid, the Afghan lower order surprised everybody with their fearless batting, especially Ikram Alikhil who tore apart the bowling hitting 8 off 66 balls, while star leg-spinner Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman chipped in 23 (22b,3×4) and 28 (16b,3×4,1×6), respectively.
However spinners who came to the rescue of England taking up five wickets and conceded 3.91 runs per over. Adil Rashid figures of 3 for 42 are his best at a World Cup. Liam Livingstone was also effective, bowling 10 overs for the first time in his ODI career.
But their seamers leaked runs, particularly Sam Curran and Chris Woakes, whose eight overs cost 87 between them. With Ben Stokes not expected to bowl a ball in this tournament, Curran and Woakes have both been exposed on a good batting surface.
Woakes took the new ball but bowled wide outside off stump to protect the short leg-side boundary and was driven through the infield. And Curran was smashed at the death, conceding 18 runs in the 46th over as Mujeeb Ur Rahman took him down to the cleaners.
Afghanistan: 284 all out in 49.5 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 80, Ikram Alikhil 58; Adil Rashid 3/42).