In the 13th match of the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023, Afghanistan put up a special batting performance against defending champions England. After being asked to bat, Rahmatullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran added 114 runs for the first wicket. Zadran, in his innings, scored 28 runs off 48 balls with the help of three boundaries.
However, he was dismissed by spinner Adil Rashid as Joe Root caught him in deep. Meanwhile, the England and Wales Cricket Board, in a hurry to update things on social media, posted the wrong flag for the Afghanistan cricket team and created a stir among fans. The Twitter admin of the team posted Bangladesh’s flag in place of Afghanistan’s while updating the score. This left fans in shock as the team continued to do so for the next three to four tweets.
Here is the post:
ECB post on England Vs Afghanistan (Source: X)
Some fans called it tactics to gain attention, while others called it intentionally mocking the opposition. It will be interesting to see what the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says on this. Meanwhile, English spinners continued their dominance with the ball as Afghani batters collapsed in front of them.
Joe Root and Liam Livingston support Adil Rashid
After Gurbaz and Zadran’s departure, England called part-time spinners to bowl. Former skipper Joe Root and batting allrounder Liam Livingston continued with their spin bowling and clinched two more wickets. Root dismissed Afghanistan skipper Hasmatullah Shahidi while Livingston hunted Azmatullah Omrazai’s wickets.
Sahidi, in his innings, scored 14 runs off 36 balls, while Omrazai scored 19 runs off 24 balls with the help of one four and one six. After their departure, Afghanistan was pushed back into the game. However, the amount of spin on the track might force their batters to score more than 250 runs to make the game interesting. The spin duo of Rashid Khan and Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman will be keen to bowl on this surface.
