Records tumble in Delhi as Afghanistan stuns world Champions England

It was a day to remember for Afghanistan in Delhi as the Afghans stunned the cricket world by beating England at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 to register only their second win in the history of the tournament having won their first match in 2015 against Scotland. A lot of records were broken at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here’s a look at all of them.

14- With their win against England Afghanistan broke their unwanted record of losing 14 consecutive World Cup games. The record for most consecutive defeats in ODI World Cup belongs to Zimbabwe who lost 18 games on the trot from 1983 to 1992

15- Star performer Mohammad Nabi (15) surpassed Dawlat Zadran (14) to become the highest-wicket taker for Afghanistan in the ODI World Cup.

8- For the first time in the history of the ODI World Cup England lost 8 wickets to spinners

13- In the England-Afghanistan clash 13 wickets fell to spinners which is the second most number of wickets picked up by spinners in a World Cup match

8- Afghan spinners took 8 English wickets in the match with Rashid picking three of those. The leg spinner became the fourth-highest wicket-taker for Afghanistan in World Cup history

11- With the loss against Afghanistan England became the first team to lose an ODI World Cup match against all the 11 test-playing nations

England's first loss to each of the 11 other Test-playing nations in CWC history

Australia - World Cup 1975 semi-final by 4 wickets

West Indies - World Cup 1979 final by 92 runs

New Zealand - World Cup 1983 by 2 wickets

India - World Cup 1983 semi-final by 6 wickets

Pakistan - World Cup 1987 by 18 runs

Zimbabwe - World Cup 1992 by 9 runs

South Africa - World Cup 1996 by 78 runs

Sri Lanka - World Cup 1996 quarter-final by 5 wickets

Ireland - World Cup 2011 by 3 wickets

Bangladesh - World Cup 2011 by 2 wickets

Afghanistan - World Cup 2023 by 69 runs

284- Afghanistan’s 284/10 is their second-highest team score in World Cup history. It is only behind the 288/10 they achieved versus West Indies in 2019. Afghanistan have posted just their third score of 250-plus at the World Cup. 

114- Openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran added 114 runs for the first wicket which is Afghanistan’s highest opening stand in World Cup history

79- Afghan openers added 79 runs in the first powerplay which is Afghanistan’s highest powerplay score in World Cup cricket

80- Gurbaz was at his best, smashing a fiery 80. He has posted Afghanistan’s highest individual score by an opener in WC history. Rahmat Shah (62) was the previous record holder. Gurbaz becomes the 3rd Afghan opener with a fifty-plus score. Gurbaz also posted the joint third-highest score by an Afghan player in World Cup history. Samiullah Shinwari (96) leads the proceeding

12.4- Afghanistan reached the 100-run mark in only 12.4 overs. The Afghans have recorded the fastest 100 by teams batting first in the 2023 World Cup. Meanwhile, with Gurbaz’s fifty, all teams in the 2023 WC have one opener with one 50-plus score

4- Joe Root claimed four catches in the match and equaled the record for most catches in a match by non- wicketkeeper. He joins Mohammad Kaif, Soumya Sarkar, Umar Akmal, and Chris Woakes. Root has raced to 84 catches in ODIs from 164 matches.

Captain’s Corner 

Hashmatullah Shahidi: "I'm quite happy, all the teammates are happy. This is the best win for us, the confidence will be there for the next game and I'm very proud. The openers get a lot of credit. They gave us a great start but unfortunately, we lost back-to-back wickets in the middle again, a lot of credit to the openers though, especially Gurbaz." 

"Ikram was with us for the last 2 years and didn't get a lot of chances, today I believed in him and gave him a chance and he repaid my faith."

 "Last couple of games we didn't finish well but the belief is there. This is just the first win, we are looking for more in the tournament. This was just the first one, not the last one."

Jos Buttler: "Disappointing to win the toss and concede that many, me missing that first ball down the leg side set the tone. Credit to Afghanistan, they outplayed us today. It came down to execution, we weren't quite at the level we'd like to be with both bat and ball. They have some fantastic bowlers, the dew didn't come in as much as we expected, and the ball held up a bit too. They bowled dead straight and kept the stumps in play, we just weren't quite good enough."

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