Ibrahim Zadran 177, Azmatullah Omarzai five-wicket haul knock England out

The politicians hadn't wanted this game to go ahead, but who could have wished to deny the scenes of raw euphoria that unfolded in Lahore as Afghanistan completed the double they had set in motion at the 2023 World Cup, dumping England out of the Champions Trophy in a wildly undulating, anxious scramble for glory. Adil Rashid swung for the hills off the penultimate ball of the match and picked out the man of the hour, Ibrahim Zadran. His take in front of the dugout was completed with the same coolness with which he had compiled his exceptional 177 from 146 balls, an innings that had simply been too good to fail. Eight runs was the margin when Mark Wood was injured and all of the known batters were gone. Much the same could have been said for England's main man of their 326-run chase, Joe Root, whose 120 from 111 balls was his 17th in the ODI format but, remarkably, his first since the 2019 World Cup. Had he had a bit more support, and had he not been racked with cramp going into the final push, his run-a-ball tempo might have been more than sufficient to seize the day. Instead, he was defeated by an effort ball from the unstoppable Azmatullah Omarzai, who had scored 41 from 31 balls to pull his own team out of a rut. His five-wicket haul came after that. Speaking straight afterwards, a shell-shocked Jos Buttler insisted he would not be making any "emotional" statements about his future as captain, but acknowledged the fundamental lack of confidence that had contributed to his team's downfall. After Afghanistan had opted to bat first, Jofra Archer's three-wicket powerplay onslaught should by rights have settled the contest there and then. However, Zadran and his captain, Hashmatullah Shahidi, focused solely on survival from 37 for 3 in the ninth over until their 103-run fourth-wicket stand had almost imperceptibly transformed into a platform for an exhilaratingly smooth acceleration. Ultimately, Afghanistan's scorecard told the exact tale of their innings. Three single-figure scores at the top, totaling 14 runs from 28 balls, followed by three 40s at ever-increasing tempos from Shahidi, Omarzai, and Mohammad Nabi, a player in his 40s who has been with Afghanistan since their exploratory tour of England as a de facto club side in 2006. Nabi's 24-ball onslaught was a typical ageless display from a player who has been with Afghanistan since 2006. The performance of rare majesty from Zadran, whose sixth hundred in 35 ODI innings surpassed Ben Duckett's 165 against Australia in the previous match at Lahore to become the best in Champions Trophy history and the highest by an Afghan in the format. It was a controlled explosion of an innings, and one of the most impressive ODI performances that can ever have been compiled. Zadran showed the tenacity to hang tough while England's quicks were dominating the early exchanges, but after reaching his first fifty from 65 balls, he marched through to his hundred from 41 more, then clattered along at a near 200 strike rate thereafter. By the time he holed out to square leg at the start of the 50th over, Zadran had worked his way so smoothly through the gears that England had been left with scarcely any agency in their predicament. This was summed up when Wood, who had already spent 38 minutes off the field after his left knee gave way midway through his fourth over, was forced to leave the field once again, this time for good and with two overs of his allocation unused. It had been a typically masochistic effort from Wood, whose willingness to bust a gut for the cause has never been in doubt. But England's desperation to get him back into the fray there epitomised their threadbare resources. In a throwback to the sort of bit-part tactics that dominated ODI cricket in the 1980s and 1990s, Root and Liam Livingstone had been charged with cobbling together 12 overs between them. But when, with nowhere else to turn, Root's offspin was served up to the hard-swinging Nabi, two massive leg-side sixes ensued in a 23-run 47th over. Not even Archer could stem the tide. He'd already been crashed for a six and three fours by Zadran, now in overdrive, who then launched a slower ball in Archer's final over over long-on to seize Duckett's record. England's target of 326 was intimidating but not impossible, as they had discovered on Saturday night when Australia chased down their own substantial total of 351 for 8 with 15 balls left. And yet, it was close to double the sort of target that England might at one stage have envisioned. The scoreboard pressure was quickly brought to bear. Phil Salt started with a confident thump for four that telegraphed the trueness of the surface, but then lost his off bail as he tried to pull a skiddy length ball from Omarzai. In addition, despite the fact that Jamie Smith is without a doubt a name for the future, it is debatable whether he is the third choice for the present. For the third ODI in a row, his dismissal was certain to be guileless in the extreme: a no-look gallop at the unstoppable Nabi, who skidded his offbreak through a touch faster to claim a wicket with the first ball of his spell. Where there was Root, there was hope, as he and Duckett set about rebuilding the innings much as they had done from an identical starting point against Australia. But after what ought to have been a costly drop from Shahidi at mid-off, when Duckett had 29, Rashid Khan stepped up with a skiddier full length, and sent his man on his way via DRS, just nine runs later. The errors thereafter came with wearying inevitability. Buttler, a player whose form seems to be so overwhelmingly dominated by his mindset, barely survived his first 12 runs before finally landing a slap for six to appear to ignite his stay. Harry Brook looked like a million dollars for his first 20 balls, then got caught in two minds as he popped a tame return catch to Nabi for 25. Buttler was defeated by Omarzai's energetic lengths as he spliced a pull straight to midwicket for 38 after one more slog-sweep for six off Nabi.