England pacer Jofra Archer made an outstanding opening in his team’s second clash in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against Afghanistan in Lahore.
Afghanistan and England have played only three One Day Internationals where England won two games while Afghans won only one. Overton replaced Carse in England’s playing 11 for the Afghanistan clash in Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
In the first ball of the fifth over, Archer dismissed Gurbaz for seven runs and took the first wicket of the match. Sediqullah Atal who walked in after Gurbaz’s dismissal made a strong entry by hitting a boundary off the second ball but Archer trapped him in LBW in the fifth delivery and dismissed him for four runs.
Apart from bagging two wickets in the fifth over, Archer went on to dismiss Rahmat for 4 in the ninth delivery. With Archer’s three wickets inside powerplay, the Afghans managed to score only 39 runs in the first 10 overs.
Speaking of the match, Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat first. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran opened the batting attack. Afghanistan made a terrible start by losing three wickets inside the first powerplay.
Archer dismissed Rahmanullah Gurbaz(6), Sediqullah Atal(4) and Rahmat Shah(4) and loaded pressure on the Afghan batting lineup. While Afghan was in need of a massive partnership, Ibrahim Zadran and Hashmatullah Shahidi made a 103-run stand and pushed Afghanistan to a better position.
Adil Rashid broke the partnership by dismissing Shahidi for 40 runs and brought England back into the game. But Azmatullah Omarzai for his part added 41 runs before being dismissed by Jamie Overton.
Again Mohammad Nabi and Zadran made a 100-plus run stand and pushed Afghanistan beyond 300 runs mark. With Ibrahim Zadran’s 177 runs, Afghanistan scored 177 runs from 146 deliveries.
