Afghanistan defeated England by 8 runs to register their first-ever win in the Champions Trophy. The Group B match was played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. England have been eliminated from the global tournament and is the third team after Pakistan and Bangladesh to face that humiliation.
Afghans will have to beat Australia in their last match to make it to the semi-finals of the tournament. Azmatullah Omarzai, the all-rounder, entered record books after his sensational performance with the bat and ball. He is the first player in the history to achieve a unique milestone.
Azmatullah Omarzai scored 41 runs off 31 balls in Afghanistan’s innings as the team posted 325/7. In the bowling department, he took five wickets and conceded just 59 runs. He dismissed Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Jamie Overton, and Adil Rashid.
He became the first player to score 40+ runs and take 5 wickets in a game of the Champions Trophy. He is the fifth bowler after Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, Jacob Oram and Glenn McGrath to amass five scalps while defending a total in the tournament’s history.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. They were 39/3 at one stage, but Ibrahim Zadran’s knock of 177 runs put the England bowlers under pressure. Hashmatullah Shahidi, Azmatullah Omarzai, and Mohammad Nabi scripted important stands with Zadran to take the team’s total above 300 runs.