During the 2023 ODI World Cup, Afghanistan set in motion the downfall of defending champions England by claiming an upset 69-run win at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium, known commonly as the Kotla – or ‘inner fortress’ – and derived from the area on which it was built, the last remnant of the Delhi Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq.
As the 2025 Champions Trophy’s Group B picked up steam, Afghanistan again drove a dagger into England’s heart in a Pakistani old city often compared to Delhi – Lahore, also full of colonial-era monuments, fountains, gardens and a Mughal influence – where they knocked out Jos Buttler’s team with a riveting eight-run win.
A few days after England opener Ben Duckett posted the highest individual score in Champions Trophy history, Afghanistan’s opener Ibrahim Zadran surpassed that with a career best of 177, which was the bedrock of a total of 325/7 from the depths of 37/3 earlier in the game.
Zadran became Afghanistan’s first centurion at a Champions Trophy, getting his sixth ODI three-figure score in his 35th innings, and backing his match-setting hundred was Azmatullah Omarzai with five wickets as the spirited Afghans dumped out England from the tournament. Joe Root’s 120 kept the chase alive, but once he became Omarzai’s third wicket the innings folded.
Buttler’s fate as England captain seems certain now, given that the team has now lost nine of their ten white-ball matches this year and slipped to seventh in the ODI rankings.
At 37/3 in the ninth over, after Jofra Archer took two wickets in his third over and another in his fifth, Afghanistan were virtually out of the game. Either side of five dot balls from Mark Wood, Zadran tried to get on with matters and succeeded in uppercutting six just over Archer at the deep third man boundary, and in the next over he took back-to-back fours off the same bowler through point and mid-off. Between singles and the odd double, Zadran kept runs ticking over without takin unnecessary risks and a valuable partnership was formed with Shahidi.
Shahidi took his time to settle, which was fine given the precarious situation that he stepped into, and began to locate his range once he’d consumed enough deliveries. Fours off Root and Jamie Overton in successive overs got the Afghanistan captain’s engine revving, and a lovely inside-out four off Root not long after raised the century stand with Zadran.
On 40, Shahidi got carried away and was bowled when trying to reverse-sweep Rashid. Zadran was joined by Omarzai who wasted little time in slogging Rashid for six over midwicket, but perhaps wary of the risk of another wicket falling, Zadran crawled through the nineties to his century. The milestone achieved, Zadran immediately deposited Liam Livingstone for six back over his head.
Omarzai hit Wood for four and six and then wore a 148kph yorker on the foot, which needed a medical inspection, but bravely batted on to get 41 off 31 deliveries. The momentum had been snatched back Afghanistan’s way after the wicket of Shahidi, and Zadran ensured he picked up the pace in the last five overs. He ransacked 20 runs off an Archer over studded with a six and three fours in a row, and the 50-run stand was raised in 26 balls by Mohammad Nabi’s first six off Rashid.
Forced to go back to Root over after losing Wood and Liam Livingstone to niggles, Buttler craned his neck as Nabi smeared the first two balls for six in what ended up being a 23-run 47th over. Zadran’s fifth six took him past Duckett’s 165 scored against Australia and he was finally dismissed for 177 by Livingstone in the last over of the innings, which also saw Nabi hole out for 40 off 24 deliveries.
Chasing 326, Root struck a very fine 120 off 111 deliveries even as wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Inside seven overs England were 30/2 after Phil Salt was bowled for 12 by Omarzai and Jamie Smith chipped Nabi’s first ball of the match to backward point. Duckett and Root counter-punched, with the former dropped on 30, but Rashid Khan used the DRS smartly to get his man on 38. Harry Brook’s poor run continued as he made 25 before popping a catch back to Nabi, and even though Root and Buttler added 83 after that the asking rate kept increasing.
