England sent packing as Zadran, Omarzai deliver CT25 stunner

England have been eliminated from the 2025 Champions Trophy upon yet another underwhelming performance at a global competition, this time falling short against a fanciful Afghanistan side by the margin of eight runs in a thrilling game at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Not too long ago, England managed to lose a game in which they failed to chase a 351 run target, so it is no surprise they fell short of the 326 run target in what was a bizarre innings from Joe Root, who scored a century for the first time in an ODI in six years.

Afghanistan’s second victory over England in just as many ICC ODI events was highlighted by a stupendous 146 ball 177 from Ibrahim Zadran that catapaulted the side from the horror show of losing 37 for 3. Zadran’s knock was both the highest ever score in champions trophy history as well as the highest by an Afghan batter in the format. However, the more telling contribution on yet another belter of a surface in Lahore was by Azmatullah Omarzai who scored 41 runs in just 31 balls and ragged the game for his side by inflicting the best bowling figure of his career, 5 for 58, to his name.

Appropriately, it was Omarzai that put the final touches to the match when he saw Adil Rashid mis-timed a slower ball to long-off in the 100th over of this gripping contest. For it was he that caused the Afghanistan’s blushes with what from England’s perspective seemed a simple chase.

Phil Salt scored two boundaries right away, but ended up losing his stumps while attempting to swipe across the line with an ‘Omarzai’ strike. When Bruno grabbed a single from next ball after a long silence, England slipped to 30 for 2. For the second time in as many games, Mohammad Nabi managed to take a wicket with his first ball. Smith tried to set the tone with a certain edge at the milk, but Jamie chucked a leading chip straight to point.

Towards the exciting climax of the innings, Root did have some pressure but Apkish managed it with isolate angles effectively. Furthermore, he found three edges in his first 10 balls, while England rocked up 60 runs in the PowerPlay. Like always, his footwork against spin was astonishing. As Duckett eased into fuss free boundaries, Root Kept edging the spin Matthew Simmons. As a result, Ben Duckett scored, just like in his big century against Australia, mostly going down the ground. The captain, Hashmatullah Shahidi put him down on 30 and he was a southpaw recipient of a reprieve.

However, Duckett could only add eight runs more before he misplayed a slider from Rashid Khan and was adjudged LBW. With a review, the Afghans managed to break the 68 run stand thanks to a decision that overturned the original ‘not out’ verdict on Duckett. But they were quite poor in sustaining the pressure against the new batter and like Root before, Harry Brook scored three fours out of the first 11 balls he faced.

England were in a bit of trouble during the 22nd over, at 133 for four. Their captain Jos Buttler was having difficulty hitting his stride versus the spinners. He survived an LBW appeal from Nabi, and his attempts to reverse sweep at Noor Ahmad brought nothing fruitful. Meanwhile, Root was batting confidently, but with Jimmy Root struggling, England were under heavier scoreboard pressure. At one point he let go of the strike and lifted a six off Nabi and later hit another one through a slog sweep. At this point, Buttler was on 12 runs off 24 balls.

Omarzai returning to bounce Butler out after he added 38 runs with the bat at the cost of 42 balls, brought another twist. Livingstone fell behind drunk cheaply due to Gulbadin Naib, and England were left with 90 runs ahead at the last 10 overs. Then Jamie Overton decided that not only did he want to bat smartly, but also that there was no need to face attacking Afghan medium pace. Instead of condoning all risks for Noor, he held back against Afghanistan lesser strong spinners instead.

He and his cohorts had to take on an outstanding Omarzai. For his part, Joe Root capped his innings with a round hundred off just 98 balls, and despite the damage the heat was inflicting on him, he was somehow able to bring out two fabulous strokes. One was a reverse-scoop for six off Farooqi and the other was a bat swing that was deliberately slow to guide

Overton and Jofra Archer made their way to England’s total, but like a few other players, he also seemed to have made a poor choice when he chipped Omarzai to long on with the total reading 17 from 14. The match had turned decisively for the day, with Mark Wood coming in at 11, and completely injured. However, it wasn’t as dire as the beginning paints.

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Five hours prior Afghanistan had chosen to bat first, which was interestingly while England was already 3-37. While it might be interesting to note that 16 months down the lane this proved an effective tactic when defeating England in New Delhi, they didn’t expect being on the back foot against Jofra Archer. To say the least, England’s first six overs were governed by Jofra as he toasted Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal and Rahmat Shah out of the game.

While with the captain, Zadran commenced the reconstruction process, locating some odd boundaries to keep the scoreboard moving. As Afghanistan crossed the century mark in the 25th over, he secured his fifty from 65 balls. An increase in pace started three overs later when he attacked Jamie Overton for 16 runs, which included a slap back over the head of the bowler for a six. The moment the Zadran-Shahidi partnership went past 100, the latter was out for 40, trying to reverse a very full ball from Adil Rashid and getting bowled.

Zadran, who scored 12 fours and 6 sixes in his innings, only slowed down a little while approaching the century mark but critically, it was Omarzai who ensured that there was no dip in the scoring, adding 41 off just 31, including a takedown of Wood. The bowler had been out of form during his second spell owing to what seemed to be a knee injury after his first four-over spell.

Zadran’s first 100 came off 106 balls which took him just 28 balls to reach his next 50. He and Mohamend Nabi hatched out against the failing English attack. Zadran located a six and then hit three consecutive boundaries off James Archer’s over while Nabi duplicated that by smashing Joe Root for two sixes. England too started to commit blunders on the field in shoddy half-does and general carelessness while even blasting Liam Livingstone who appeared to be picking up a injury. However, the all rounder did come back to bowl a spectacular 50th over and while giving away only two runs for two wickets. But Afghanistan had already plundered 113 from the final ten overs. For more Latest Blogs; Click Here

Brief scores: Afghanistan 325/7 in 50 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 177, Azmatullah Omarzai 41; Jofra Archer 3-64) beat England 317 in 49.4 overs (Joe Root 120; Azmatullah Omarzai 5-58) by 8 runs.