Mujeeb Ur Rahman was one of the heroes of Afghanistan’s historic victory over defending champions England in their World Cup 2023 encounter on Sunday in Delhi.
This unanticipated and shocking win by Afghanistan has now ripped up the points table open and has made the tournament more interesting as Afghanistan’s next two games are in Chennai, which is expected to assist their spinners even more than the surface did in Delhi.
Defending a competitive total of 284, Mujeeb Ur Rahman took the wickets of Joe Root, Harry Brook, and Chris Woakes, finishing with impressive figures of 10-1-51-3. Rashid Khan took 3 wickets for 37 runs while Mohammad Nabi took 2 wickets. Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq took one wicket each. Mujeeb Ur Rahman also made a significant contribution with the bat, scoring 28 runs in only 16 balls that propelled their total to 284.
After the match, Mujeeb Ur Rahman was given a hug by a young Afghanistan fan. Near the dugout, a child came toward Mujeeb; this young Afghanistan fan got emotional and started crying as he gave a tight hug to Mujeeb.
The video of this event has gone viral on social media and fans are showering their praise over Mujeeb.
Watch: a young emotional boy cries and hugs Mujeeb Ur Rahman
This is real emotion, Heart warming ❤️
Well done team Afghanistan#AFGvsENG #WorldCup2023 #ENGvsAFG #Afganistan #Rashidkhan #icccricketworldcup2023 #England pic.twitter.com/ZwX8aNnlWQ— Kartik Jindal (@CAKartikJindal) October 15, 2023
Talking about the game, electing to bowl first, England were initially rocked by opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who smashed 80 runs in 57 balls but got run out. England made a comeback in the game through wickets in the middle overs before 23-year-old youngster Ikram Alikhil recorded a gritty half-century, scoring 58 runs in 66 balls. Cameos from Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman helped Afghanistan reach a competitive total of 284.
Afghanistan bowled much better than they did against India and had a hold over England right from the start. In the second over, Farooqi got Bairstow, and then the spin trio of Mujeeb, Rashid, and Nabi choked the rest of the batters with Naveen nipping out Jos Buttler.
Player of the Match Mujeeb said: ‘Very proud moment to be here in the World Cup and beating the champions. It’s a great achievement for the whole team, we worked hard for this day. We beat such a big team. It was a wonderful performance from the bowlers and the batters. As a spinner, it’s pretty hard to bowl in the powerplay, you have only two fielders outside.’
