Afghanistan shock clueless England with a 69-run win to cause 1st upset of 2023 World Cup

Afghanistan spun a web around defending champions England to land the first major upset of the 2023 World Cup in Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday, October 15. The 69-run victory was only their second World Cup triumph and the first-ever ODI win over England.

Being forced to bat first, Hashmatullah Shahidi's team wasted a great start but recovered late to reach 284/10. Rahmanullah Gurbaz did most of the hitting with a rollicking 57-ball 80 and Ikram Alikhil led the late recovery with a 58 (66).

It looked like a bang-par score as the surface offered a bit of low bounce in the first innings but not much else. England started the second innings as clear favorites.

However, all that started to change quite soon. Fazalhaq Farooqi dismissed Jonny Bairstow on the first ball of the second over, finding some early swing under the lights which the English pacers couldn't.

Dawid Malan and Joe Root calmed things down for the second wicket and were playing spin well. Then, out of nowhere, Root played a full sliding delivery on the back foot against Mujeeb ur Rahman and saw his stumps clattered.

Shahidi held back his biggest match-winner Rashid Khan until the 16th over and got proved right. Mohammad Nabi got Malan in typical fashion. Meanwhile, Naveen ul Haq, overcoming chants of 'Kohli, Kohli' in Delhi, clean-bowled Jos Buttler before Rashid even got warmed up to bowl and dominate.

The leg-spinner still had a big job in hand - keep England's big hitters quiet. He did that by getting Liam Livingstone LBW in front and keeping the others quiet. Nabi came back and got Curran. All along this collapse, Harry Brook (66) showed why he's considered the next big thing with a sweetly-paced attrition against spin.

Another mini partnership happened between Brook and Woakes but Mujeeb came back and got them both out in back-to-back overs, celebrating Imran Tahir-style.

The pitch spun and the ball kept even lower than in the previous innings but England were poor in their application, both against pace and spin. There was no footwork as the batting order looked a bit more suited to a flat track.

Mark Wood and Adil Rashid ignited a display of the only thing England could boast about the day - batting depth. But Rashid Khan's saved overs came through as he got both of them and, fittingly, signed off to a great, great win.

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What happened in the first innings of the England-Afghanistan match?

Afghanistan started the first innings with hopes of going beyond 300 but the powerplay made them dream of 350. England then brought them back to a settlement of 'maybe 250' in the middle overs and they eventually ended with something in between - 284.

It looked like they had something to fight for against the mighty English after what was a real battle in the middle. You wouldn't have expected that when England looked sleepy and Afghanistan a bit fidgety in the first over.

Then Gurbaz woke everyone up with a flurry of boundaries against Woakes and then Curran. He left Topley mostly untouched in his first spell.

Gurbaz's partner Ibrahim Zadran went into his shell but rotated the strike well, allowing Gurbaz to take Afghanistan past the 100-run mark in the 16th over itself.

England corrected their lengths after the first drinks break and Wood and Rashid built a bit of pressure leading to Zadran's wicket. And suddenly all hell broke loose.

Rahmat Shah came and got stumped by Rashid and Shahidi ran Gurbaz out on the first ball he faced. The opener, who was batting magnificently, walked back slapping his bat on the boundary cushions. Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai had a small partnership. But it only allowed Buttler to bring part-timers Liam Livingstone and Joe Root and suck the life and momentum out of the innings.

Omarzai tried to turn a switch on against Woakes' second spell but lost it out to Livingstone, who bowled his all 10 overs for the first time. Root took out Shahidi soon. Buttler, with more flexibility at his disposal after the middle-overs, rotated Wood and Rashid to get through Mohammad Nabi.

But Ikram Akhil stood on and built a good partnership with Rashid Khan, with the duo rotating the strike well and only taking on Curran.

When England's Rashid took out Afghanistan's Rashid, Ikram built another partnership with Mujeeb and ticked a few more runs off for Afghanistan. Topley and Wood got their wickets and Naveen got run out to end at 284. A fighting total at the halfway stage turned out to be a historic one after 40 overs.