WATCH: Afghanistan’s mystery fan Wazhma Ayoubi celebrates team’s historic victory over defending champions England in 2023 ODI World Cup  

It was a historic day for Afghanistan cricket at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday, August 15. They’ve beaten the defending champions England to register only their second win in World Cup history. Jos Buttler and Co. were outmuscled in all departments as Afghanistan cruised to a massive 69-run win, their first win of the ongoing tournament.

England were confident of restricting Afghanistan to a paltry total after sending them to bat first. However, the Afghan opening duo, especially, Rahmanullah Gurbaz stunned the English team with some outstanding strokeplay. Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran laid the foundation with a 114-run partnership, but England soon took control of the game with back-to-back wickets.

Gurbaz had to depart after scoring a blazing 80 of 57 balls, thanks to captain Hashmatullah Shahidi’s suicidal run-out initiative. England caused a collapse in the middle phase but Afghanistan staged a brilliant comeback in the end to post a competitive total of 284. Ikram Alikhil’s brilliant half-century and effective cameos from Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman were the key.

After the game, Afghanistan mystery girl and social media influencer Wazhma Ayoubi was seen celebrating her home side’s famous win. She took to her X (formerly known as Twitter) handle to share her joy and thanked all the Indian brothers and sisters who supported Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan defeats the current world champions by 69 runs. Congratulations to all of Afghanistan. Finally, we achieve our first World Cup win after a long wait. Well done #AfghanAtalan @ACBofficials. And a big thank you to all our Indian brothers and sisters cheering for Afghanistan today, Dhanyavaad,” Wazhma wrote.

Afghan spinners tore the English batting unit apart

A target below 300 was never going to be easy to defend against a destructive batting line-up of England. However, the Afghan bowlers managed to trouble the English batters right from the start and picked up wickets at regular intervals. Spinners Mujeeb ur Rahman, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi were the pick of the bowlers – taking a collective of 8 wickets for 104 runs. Mujeeb was adjudged player of the match for his 3/51 and valuable 28 runs.

“It is a 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. That’s something I’ve been working in the nets,” Mujeeb said after the win.