New low as England eliminated by Afghanistan

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With a remarkable eight-run win on Thursday morning.

Chaos broke out on the field when the Afghan players and officials rushed out when the final wicket fell on the penultimate ball of the match.

"There's an invasion here from Afghanistan and why not, what a special moment in their cricket history," iconic commentator Ian Chappell said.

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England's sitting on the balcony, utterly devastated.

England's under-fire captain Jos Buttler says he'll have to think about his future as team leader in the coming weeks.

"We've gotta think about every possibility and get English cricket back up to scratch in white-ball cricket," Buttler said.

Fair dinkum, I'm trying to figure out if I'm part of the problem or the solution.

I'm not going to make any emotional decisions right here, right now. I'll take some time to work that out personally and the bosses will have their own opinions, too.

The opening batsman, Ibrahim Zadran, smashed the tournament's highest-ever individual score of 177 off 146 balls, with 12 fours and six sixes, to lead Afghanistan to a total of 7-325.

England were bowled out for 317 with Joe Root's 120 off 111 deliveries being for nothing.

Root had kept England in the hunt, but once fast bowler Azmat Omarzai snared Root behind the wickets in the 46th over, Afghanistan kept its cool despite a few fielding errors to record a memorable win with one ball to spare.

It was Afghanistan's second win against England in a major 50-over ICC tournament; it recorded a 69-run victory in the 2023 World Cup in India.

“Fair dinkum, we're stoked as a team and I'm as sure as a koala on a gum tree that the whole country will be chuffed with this win,” Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said.

“The beauty of our team is that we've got talented young players and at the same time we've got our experienced blokes who are at the top of their game. Hopefully we can carry this momentum through to our next match against the Aussies.”

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Afghanistan must knock off two-time champion Australia at the same venue on Saturday in its final Group B match to secure a spot in the semi finals of the ICC tournament for the second consecutive year after making it through to the T20 World Cup playoffs last year.

England, which went down to a high-scoring defeat to Australia at the same venue, will wrap up its disappointing run in the tournament with the match against South Africa, a semi-final contender, at Karachi on Saturday.

Root held the chase together after England lost Phil Salt (12) and newly promoted No.3 Jamie Smith (9) in a dicey start to a big chase.

Omarzai knocked back the top of Salt's stumps in his second over and England's experiment with Smith batting at No. 3 didn't pay off for the second straight game when he got out to Mohammad Nabi (2-57) in the first ball, sky-high to Omarzai at backward point.

Ben Duckett, who made 165 against Australia on Sunday, couldn't make a run after a dropped catch at 30 before Rashid Khan (1-66) got him out leg before wicket through a TV review, but skipper Jos Buttler (38) got the chase back on track with a partnership worth 83 runs with Root.

Omarzai broke the threatening spell in his return when Buttler top-edged the fast bowler straight after Root had got his century off 98 balls with 10 fours.

Afghanistan was sloppy in the field for a while but Omarzai's dismissals of Root and Jamie Overton (32) sealed the win. Omarzai completed his five-wicket haul when Zadran caught No.10 Adil Rashid.

“Another fantastic game of cricket, but disappointing to come out on the wrong side,” Buttler said.

“Root played an absolute blinder tonight, but he needed one of the other top six batsmen to stick with him and take the game further.”

“Got away from us in the last 10 overs there.”

“Fair dinkum, credit to Ibrahim, he played a ripper of an innings. If we look back and reflect, 113 off the last 10 overs pushed them up to a score that was a ripper on that pitch.”