LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Afghanistan eliminated ragged England from the Champions Trophy with a stunning eight-run victory on Wednesday.
Opening batter Ibrahim Zadran smashed the tournament’s highest-ever individual score of 177 off 146 balls with 12 fours and six sixes and led Afghanistan to 325-7.
England was bowled out for 317 with Joe Root's 120 off 111 balls going in vain.
Root had kept England in the hunt, but once he gloved fast bowler Azmat Omarzai (5-58) behind the wickets in the 46th over, Afghanistan kept its nerve despite a few fumbles in the field to record a memorable win with one ball to spare.
It was Afghanistan's second win against England in a major 50-over ICC tournament; it recorded a 69-run victory in the 2023 World Cup in India.
“As a team we are happy and I’m sure the whole nation will be happy with this win,” Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said.
“The beauty of our team is we have talented youngsters and at the same time we have senior guys who are at the top level. Hopefully we take this momentum with us for the next game against Australia.”
Afghanistan must beat two-time champion Australia in its last Group B match at the same venue Friday to seal its second straight semifinal in an ICC tournament after playing last year's T20 World Cup playoffs.
England, which lost a high-scoring game to Australia at the same venue, will wrap up its disappointing run in the tournament with the match against semifinal contender South Africa at Karachi on Saturday.
Root's century in vain
Root held the chase together after England lost Phil Salt (12) and newly promoted No. 3 Jamie Smith (9) in a wobbly start to a tall chase.
Omarzai knocked back the top of Salt’s stumps in his second over and England’s experiment with Smith at No. 3 didn’t work for second straight game when he skied Mohammad Nabi’s (2-57) first ball to Omarzai at backward point.
Ben Duckett, who hit 165 against Australia last Saturday, couldn’t capitalize on a dropped catch at 30 before Rashid Khan (1-66) had won a leg before wicket through television review, but captain Jos Buttler (38) put the chase back on track with 83-run partnership with Root.
Omarzai broke the threatening stand in his return spell when Buttler top-edged the fast bowler just after Root had raised his century off 98 balls with 10 fours.
Afghanistan was sloppy in the field for a while but Omarzai's dismissals of Root and Jamie Overton (32) sealed the win. Omarzai completed his five-wicket haul when Zadran caught No. 10 Adil Rashid.
“Another fantastic game of cricket, but disappointing to come out on the wrong side,” Buttler said. “He (Root) played an unbelievable innings tonight (but) he needed one of the other top six batters to stay in with him and take the game deeper.”
Zadran leads the way
The 23-year-old Zadran absorbed the pressure of losing three wickets inside the batting powerplay and anchored Afghanistan to a strong total with his sixth ODI hundred.
Jofra Archer’s (3-64) triple strike in his first five overs had reduced Afghanistan to 39-3 with fast bowler Mark Wood (0-50) also squeezing the runs in his tidy four-over spell for 14 runs before struggling in his return spell with his left knee heavily strapped.
Zadran, who returned to international cricket in this tournament after ankle surgery in September, and Shahidi (40) revived Afghanistan with a 103-run partnership. But Shahidi misjudged the length of leg-spinner Rashid while going for a reverse sweep and was clean bowled.
Zadran pushed up the scoring rate with better than run-a-ball 72-run partnership with Omarzai, who made 41 off 31 balls.
Zadran continued to bat with lot of determination and charged against Archer and Wood in the final 10 overs once he completed his century off 106 balls.
He smashed Archer for 20 runs in one over with a straight six and followed it up with three cracking boundaries behind point as Afghanistan notched 113 runs off the final 60 balls.
Nabi scored 40 with three sixes and two fours and Zadran smashed Archer for 20 runs in one over that featured straight six and three crisp boundaries behind point.
Zadran surpassed Duckett’s record of 165 made against Australia last Saturday with another attractive straight six against Archer as the fast bowler was smashed for 43 runs off his final five overs.
“I wanted to bat longer and longer and that 177 is a special moment for me,” Zadran said.
Wood also struggled in his four-over spell with pain in his knees and went for 36 runs off his four overs before Livingstone stepped in to bowl the final over. The spinner conceded just two runs and had Zadran caught at deep backward square leg and Nabi holed out at deep mid-wicket.
“They got away from us there in the last 10 overs," Buttler said. “Credit to Ibrahim, he played a fantastic innings. If we look back and reflect, 113 off the last 10 pushed them up to a score that was a very good on that pitch.”
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The Associated Press
