Delhi 2023 and now Lahore 2025, 15 months and 450kms apart but the result was the same as Afghanistan turned over England yet again in an ICC ODI event. That was the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and this time, it's the Champions Trophy, however, this one was decisive given that England was knocked out of the tournament having lost two on the bounce now in the competition. The win was set up by Ibrahim Zadran's record-breaking 177 off just 146 balls before all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai finished it off with a fifer with the ball.
Chasing 326, England had a few big partnerships, between Joe Root and Ben Duckett and then Root with skipper Jos Buttler and then Jamie Overton. Root held one end while smashing his 17th ODI century but Azmatullah with his bounce and skiddy nature kept hurting England with regular wickets before ending up with magnificent figures of 5/58. This was the first-ever five-wicket haul by an Afghan bowler in ICC ODI events as Omarzai bettered the likes of Mohammad Nabi, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Shapoor Zadran, who all had four-fers in their name in 2019, 2023 and 2015 World Cups respectively.
Omarzai also scripted Champions Trophy history as he became the first bowler in the tournament's history to take a five-wicket haul against England. The previous best figures by any bowler against England in the Champions Trophy were 4/30 by Kyle Mills, 12 years ago in Cardiff.
Best bowling figures against England in the Champions Trophy
5/58 - Azmatullah Omarzai (AFG), Lahore 2025
4/30 - Kyle Mills (NZ), Cardiff 2013
4/31 - Grant Elliott (NZ), Johannesburg 2009
4/45 - Douglas Hondo (ZIM), Colombo RPS 2002
Omarzai, who was named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2024, continued his magnificent form in the format and is slowly developing into a key cog in Afghanistan's wheels in white-ball cricket. To add to his bowling effort, Omarzai also played a crucial hand of 41 off just 31 deliveries and will hope to continue his run in the remaining games for Afghanistan, followed by the IPL for Punjab Kings.
Afghanistan now needs to beat Australia in their final Group B encounter to get through to the semi-finals.
