This was always pencilled in as the weekend that one game would ignite this tournament, and so it proved. It was not the packed-house procession in Ahmedabad on Saturday that did it, but rather the champions’ shock decoronation in Delhi. Until recently England were considered the side most likely to end India’s title hopes, but so far the only thing they have ended is Afghanistan’s 14-game, eight-year World Cup losing run.
England’s greatest white-ball side can now add to their list of achievements a starring role in one of the World Cup’s greatest shocks. From first ball – a leg-side wide from Chris Woakes that was missed by Jos Buttler and ran away to the rope – to last they were profoundly outplayed by Afghanistan, who survived the calamitous self-inflicted dismissal of the imperious Rahmanullah Gurbaz to post a total that, while just 12 more than the one India made light of against them here on Wednesday, proved way beyond these opponents, and England eventually fell 69 short.
