Champions Trophy 2025: Afghanistan made a great comeback in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Afghanistan defeated England by 8 runs in a match played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on 26 February. The English team was ruled out of the semi -finals due to Afghanistan’s victory. This was Afghanistan’s second consecutive win against England in ODIs. Earlier, in the Cricket World Cup 2023, the Afghan team defeated England by 69 runs.
Butler indicated to leave the captaincy
After the defeat, England captain Jose Butler spills the pain. Butler also indicated to leave the captaincy. Butler, who was facing criticisms and losing to Afghanistan due to poor form, said that he would not make any hasty statements about his captaincy, but all the possibilities are open.
Jose Butler said, ‘I will not give any statement in a hurry yet, but will think about my and other players. We will consider all possibilities. This is very disappointing. I thought we could win the match. Another great match, but we lost. ‘
England failed in the 2023 ODI World Cup held in India and the 2024 T20 World Cup held in West Indies-US under the captaincy of Jose Butler. Butler said, ‘Afghanistan snatched the match from us in the last two overs. The credit goes to Ibrahim Jadaran who played a brilliant innings. Joe Root also scored a brilliant century. It would have been better if a batsman could have survived against him. Unfortunately, Mark Wood suffered a knee injury in his fourth over. He deserves credit for bowling despite the pain. Route has been a great player in all formats and has shown us how to handle pressure. His ODI record is very good. Being one of the best players in the world, it is disappointed when you are unable to perform well. I do not want to take any emotional decision.
Afghan captain said this after victory
After the victory, Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said, “We are happy as a team.” Our country will be happy with this victory. The match was quite tense but we controlled it well. I am happy with the result. Jadaran is a talented player. We had lost three wickets in the beginning and were under pressure. The partnership between me and Jadaran was important. Ajmat played a good innings and also threw a brilliant over.
Hashmatullah Shahidi says, ‘We have talented youth and some senior players. Everyone knows their role. Everyone is doing well. It is expected that we will be able to maintain this rhythm in the match against Australia. This will give us confidence but it will be a new day. This match will decide who will reach the kmfi finals. We will do what will be good for us that day.
In the match, Afghanistan scored 325 runs for seven wickets with the help of Ibrahim Jadaran’s century (177). In response, the English team collapsed for 317 runs in 49.5 overs. Joe Root scored 120 runs for England. The Afghanistan team will now face Australia on 28 February (Friday) in their next match.
