Joe Root’s 17th one-day international hundred could not prevent England crashing out of the Champions Trophy, after losing to Afghanistan by eight runs in a floodlit thriller at the Gaddafi Stadium.
Jos Buttler’s team headed into the must-win Group B fixture with the captain himself acknowledging he felt under pressure for his job, but the gravity of the situation could not inspire a change in fortunes despite Root’s heroic efforts.
Instead, Ibrahim Zadran added to the list of opposition batsmen to have struck devastating, decisive hundreds against them in the first two months of 2025 following blitzes by the likes of Abhishek Sharma and Josh Inglis.
This was their 18th defeat in 25 matches since defending their world title 16 months ago, and elimination at the earliest possible opportunity adds another sorry chapter to the demise of English white-ball cricket.
Forty eight hours after giving Buttler’s under-fire leadership a resounding endorsement, Root engineered a chase of 326 by reaching three figures off 98 balls.
Cramping up, he opted to take running out of the equation with 58 required from 36 deliveries when he ramped left-armer Fazalhaq Farooqi for six to give England hope of staying alive until Saturday’s final group game against South Africa in Karachi.
Afghanistan held their nerve to beat England by eight runs in Lahore on Wednesday
Joe Root hit his 17th one-day international hundred to keep England in the hunt but it wasn’t enough
Jos Buttler’s side have lost six one-day internationals in a row and are out of the Champions Trophy
With the equation whittled down to 45 off 28, he somehow shovelled an Azmatullah Omarzai delivery from outside off stump to the fine leg boundary.
However, he fell two balls later for 120 when an Azmatullah cutter brushed his glove on the way through to wicketkeeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
That left England 287 for seven, and although Jofra Archer struck two of his first three balls for four, alongside the set Jamie Overton, Azmatullah Omarzai closed out the innings to finish with five wickets, the last of which saw Adil Rashid caught from the penultimate ball.
Earlier, when Buttler departed for a scratchy 38, it looked like an even more humiliating defeat would be added to England’s 2025 catalogue.
Its last rites were served with Mark Wood hobbling at the non-striker’s end – the fast bowler’s latest left knee injury another galling development in this winter of white-ball woe.
And Zadran preyed on the disarray with a majestic 177, helping the Afghans recover from 37 for three inside the power play in spectacular style.
England’s gamble on fielding a four-man attack in this tournament, supported by a couple of part-time spinners in Root and Liam Livingstone, forced them into patching up Wood and sending him back into the fray after jarring his troublesome left knee in his follow through during his new ball spell.
Wood’s predicament was also in keeping with England coach Brendon McCullum promising last month that there would be no cotton wool treatment for the bowlers despite this being an Ashes year. Whether the latest damage to a joint operated on six years ago and responsible for keeping him on the sidelines last year jeopardises his longer-term plans remains to be seen.
Jofra Archer took three early wickets but England’s bowling fell apart in the closing stages of the Afghanistan innings
Ibrahim Zadran hit a stunning 177 to help Afghanistan post 325, which proved to be too much for England
England were also hit by another injury as Mark Wood struggled with a left knee issue
Zadran’s exhilarating stroke play, meanwhile, meant that Ben Duckett’s tournament record score of 165 against Australia at the same ground lasted just four days.
As he left the field, to the roars of an Afghan-heavy Gaddafi Stadium crowd, Duckett was one of the England players to offer a congratulatory handshake.
With bowling their stronger suit, Afghanistan were confident at halfway that a total of 325 for seven, their biggest ever in ICC tournament cricket, would lead to a repeat of the result in the World Cup fixture between the two sides at the 2023 World Cup.
Unlike England’s 69-run defeat in Delhi, however, dew was a factor here, as it had been when Australia skipped home by five wickets on Saturday.
