England captain Jos Buttler praised Rahmanullah Gurbaz for putting England in a challenging situation during the World Cup 2023 match between England and Afghanistan on Sunday, October 15 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Gurbaz provided a strong start for Afghanistan and scored 80 runs from 57 deliveries, which included eight boundaries and four sixes after England chose to field first in the World Cup 2023 match.
Gurbaz formed a partnership of 114 runs for the opening wicket with Ibrahim Zadran. However, in the penultimate ball of the 19th over, the young batsman was run out at the striker’s end due to a mix-up with skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi.
Afghanistan established a formidable target of 285 runs for England to pursue on a slow pitch.
“No, we didn’t, no we started poorly, first ball of the game I missed one and it sort of set the tone for that first 10 overs, we didn’t hit the areas that we wanted to and credit to Gurbaz – as he put us under a lot of pressure, played some good shots, but maybe a few too many easy boundaries in there.”
“And it took us a while to sort of get into the game, as you said, and we came back well, and then maybe let them get a few too many more at the end,” Butter said in the post-match press conference.
For England, Harry Brook scored the maximum 66 runs but the whole team was bundled out on 215 runs in 40.3 overs.
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“Yeah, it’s a big setback obviously. Before the tournament starts you have a different idea of how the first three games would pan out. We’ve got to show a lot of character, a lot of resilience within the team and most of all a lot of belief. There were a lot of excellent players there and we haven’t played well enough today but we must keep that belief,” he added.
