(From Naveen Abeyratne in Lahore)
Ibrahim Zadran powered Afghanistan to an eight runs win against England in the Champions Trophy match played at Lahore today. The old masters of the game fell in front of the babies of the tournament and crashed out of the tournament without a single win in two matches
Chasing a challenging target of 326, England fell shot of eight runs with a ball to spare. This marks Afghanistan’s second consecutive victory over England in ICC tournaments.
England still has one more game against South Africa on March 01 but their hopes of reaching the semi final stage have been completely vanished due to the losses against Australia and Afghanistan.
England knew that they’ll have to get 326 to stay in this tournament. Hence the English batters kept the scoring rate just above the required level, while keeping the wickets in tact. There were no big scores from the major batting force but Joe Root had dropped the anchor and kept going.
Despite losing two wickets for 30, Joe Root and Ben Duckett added 68 runs for the third wicket. Harry Brooke, the next Mr. Cricket for England, falling for mere 25 was a big blow. Yet Root didn’t look back and went ahead with skipper Jos Buttler to lift the total to 216 for four. Root was unbeaten on 90 and England needed 110 in 13 overs to win. In the last ten overs, the equation read as 90 runs in 60 balls.
Reaching the three-figure mark, in an ODI, after six years, Root meant business. However, a slower ball from Azmathulla Omarzai ended Root’s knock and his 120 in 111 balls included 11 fours and a massive six. Yet England needed 39 off 25 balls and it was not Impossible. Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton marched towards the target until another slower from Omarzai did the job for Asians. Last three wickets fell within eight runs as Azmathulla Omarzai claimed five for 58.
England poor bowling was exposed in the Afghanistan innings. They have conceded 351 to Australians on Saturday and today it was yet another 325 to Afghanistan. The biggest mistake on today was allowing Ibrahim Zadran to score 177 in 146 deliveries. In the 50 over game, there were 154 balls more and usually aggressive Afghans scored 148 from from those.
Zadran took his own record of the best ODI innings for Afghanistan from 162 to 177. His previous best of 162 was against Sri Lanka at Pallekele. Apart from Zadrans towering 177, there were no other big scores for Afghans. However, all the English bowlers were torn apart into pieces.
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