The excitement of World Cup 2023 has now started reaching the fans' heads. Afghanistan defeated defending champions England by 69 runs in a thrilling match on Sunday. This was the first upset of this World Cup. Hashmatullah Shahidi's team achieved its first win in the ODI World Cup since 2015. This defeat has dealt a blow to England's hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals. However, it is too early to say this as the team still has six matches left and from here Jos Buttler's team will have to win all the matches.
This time the World Cup is being played in a round-robin format between 10 teams. In the league round, one team will face the remaining nine teams, and the four teams that top the points table will qualify for the semi-finals. In 2019, the World Cup was played in the same format and then India was on top of the points table. India had won seven matches. In such a situation, one or two more defeats for England can make the path to the semi-finals very difficult for them. Not only this, the same danger is looming over Pat Cummins's Australian team.
Now know what happened in the Afghanistan-England match?
England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and decided to bowl first. Batting first, Afghanistan's innings was reduced to 284 runs in 49.5 overs. Rahmanullah Gurbaz played an inning of 80 runs in 57 balls with the help of eight fours and four sixes. Whereas, Ikram Alikhil scored 58 runs. Adil Rashid got three wickets for England. In reply, England's innings was reduced to 215 runs in 40.3 overs. Harry Brook scored the highest score of 66 runs. Mujeeb ur Rahman and Rashid Khan took three wickets each for Afghanistan.
Team India is on top of the points table
Rohit Sharma's Indian team is currently on top of the points table. He has won all three out of three matches so far. In the first match, India defeated Australia by six wickets, in the second match Afghanistan by eight wickets and in the third match Pakistan by seven wickets. India currently has six points from three matches and their net run rate is +1.821. There are only three teams in this World Cup that have not lost any match yet. Apart from India, the teams of New Zealand and South Africa have not lost any matches. In second place is the New Zealand team with three wins in three matches. The team has six points and its net run rate is +1.604.
New Zealand and South African teams are in great form
The Kiwi team defeated England by nine wickets in its first match, the Netherlands by 99 runs in the second match, and Bangladesh by eight wickets in the third match. South Africa has played two matches and has four points from two matches. Temba Bavuma's South African team currently has the highest net run rate with +2.360. Bavuma's team is currently in excellent form. This team defeated Sri Lanka by 102 runs in its first match and Australia by 134 runs in the second match. The team's next match is against the Netherlands. This is the same team that created a big upset by defeating South Africa in the Super-12 match in the 2022 T20 World Cup and Pakistan benefited from it. In this way, this World Cup match between the two is also going to be interesting.
England's team dropped to fifth place
At the same time, Babar Azam's Pakistan team is in fourth place. They have four points from three matches with two wins and one loss. After the first two wins, the net run rate of the Pakistani team was positive, but after the defeat in the third match against India, the net run rate of the team became negative. The net run rate of Babar's team is currently -0.137. Pakistan's next match is against a strong team like Australia. This match is going to be very important for both teams. The path ahead for the losing team can be very difficult. At the same time, after the defeat by Afghanistan, the England team has dropped out of the list of the first four teams and has come to fifth place. They have two points from three matches with one win and two losses. The net run rate of the English team has fallen further after losing to the Afghanistan team. It has become -0.084.
The Afghanistan team jumped to sixth place
England will now have to win all the matches from here to reach the top four and even after this, the role of net run rate will be very important. Afghanistan opened its account of victory in this World Cup by defeating England. They also have two points from three matches with one win and two losses. Afghanistan team is in sixth position, just below England. His net run rate is -0.652. The next match of this team is against New Zealand in Chennai, which will be very interesting because the ball spins a lot in Chepauk and the Afghan team has veteran spinners like Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, and Nabi. Bangladesh is placed seventh with two points from three matches with one win and two losses. His net run rate is -0.699. Shakib Al Hasan's team's next match is against India on October 19.
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