Afghanistan kept their hopes of reaching the semifinals of the Champions Trophy alive with a thrilling eight-run win over England in Lahore on Wednesday, and the euphoria of the big win was witnessed in a sea of congratulatory messages online, including from batting legend Sachin Tendulkar.
Opener Ibrahim Zadran’s outstanding innings of 177 runs from 146 deliveries propelled Afghanistan to a total of 325 for 7 after they opted to bat first. Zadran’s batting heroics were followed by Azmatullah Omarzai’s impressive bowling performance, claiming five wickets while conceding 58 runs, which limited England to 317 all out.
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This victory kept Afghanistan’s aspirations for a semi-final berth intact, as they moved to two points — behind Australia and South Africa who have three points each. England have been eliminated after two consecutive defeats and their sixth in a row in ODIs.
Hailing the Afghanistan team, Tendulkar said their wins in international cricket should no longer be termed upsets.
“Afghanistan’s steady and consistent rise in international cricket has been inspiring! You can’t term their wins as upsets anymore, they’ve made this a habit now,” Tendulkar wrote in a post on ‘X’. “A superb century by @IZadran18 and wonderful five-for by @AzmatOmarzay sealed another memorable win for Afghanistan. Well played!”.
Here’s how some of the other greats from cricket reacted to Afghanistan’s victory:
Afghanistan will now have to beat Australia to qualify for the semifinals when they meet the ODI world champions on Friday.
If the Afghans manage to win that game, it will leave the Aussies biting their nails while waiting for the result in the last Group B game between England and South Africa on Saturday.
India and New Zealand have already qualified for the semifinals from Group A.