England skipper Jos Buttler admits that his team was “outplayed” by Afghanistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 on Sunday, October 16 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. He expressed that it was a disappointing effort from the team. England lost the match by 69 runs, handing Afghanistan their only second win in the history of the ICC ODI World Cup.
After winning the toss, Jos Buttler opted to bowl first. England conceded 284 runs in the innings. There were also a few fielding lapses during the innings. In response to the total, the England batters succumbed to 215 runs. Harry Brook was the lone warrior in the innings, who scored 66 runs. The Afghanistan spin-twins, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman took two wickets each in the innings. Reflecting on the loss, Jos Buttler said,
“Disappointing to win the toss and concede that many, me missing that first ball down the leg side set the tone. Credit to Afghanistan, they outplayed us today. It came down to execution, we weren’t quite at the level we’d like to be with both bat and ball. They have some fantastic bowlers, the dew didn’t come in as much as we expected, the ball held up a bit too. They bowled dead straight and kept the stumps in play, we just weren’t quite good enough.”
Afghanistan scripted history with a stunning upset win over defending champions England in Delhi in a thrilling #CWC23 clash 🙌#ENGvAFG | 📝: https://t.co/9T8oxF60Dt pic.twitter.com/E5c9OmRvIf
— ICC Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) October 15, 2023
Got to let these defeats hurt: Jos Buttler
England skipper Jos Buttler further expressed that they need to reflect on the loss and take the learnings from the game. However, he also said that the team has the character to make a comeback from this shocking defeat against Afghanistan. He said at the post-match press conference,
“You got to let these defeats hurt, there’s no point in getting over things too quickly, we need to reflect. There’s a lot of character in this group, we need to show a lot of resilience and come back stronger. We need to have guys being able to perform under pressure and that’s what all of us will be working hard towards.”
England currently ranks fifth on the points table with two points from three matches. They lost to New Zealand in the opening match of the tournament and secured a 137-run win against Bangladesh in the following game. The Jos Buttler-led team will take on the in-form South Africa on October 21 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
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