Gurbaz stings and stuns England with early assault

As it turned out, the underdogs got to a total which eventually proved well beyond the defending champions.

Cricket – ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 – England v Afghanistan – Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi, India – October 15, 2023 Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz in action REUTER

Granted that England were sloppy to begin with, but they also seemed shell-shocked by the assault initiated by the 21-year-old from a tribal background, the first from his country to hit a hundred on ODI debut, who already has significant experience in international white-ball cricket as well as franchise outings around the world including for Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.

The Delhi pitch, in contrast to its traditional avatar, has been a batsman’s friend in this World Cup, and Gurbaz’s 80 off 57 balls, with eight fours and four sixes, carried on the trend seen in the previous two games at the venue. His opening partnership with Ibrahim Zadran (28 off 48 balls), worth 114 runs, was virtually a one-man show.

Afghanistan had got a decent score on the board against India as well, but its inadequacy was confirmed in the first few overs itself. That game was played at the same venue, and armed with prior knowledge, Afghanistan didn’t make the same mistake twice. Fazalhaq Farooqi was dealt with contempt a few days ago, but on Sunday, he got the ball to move threateningly into the right-hander and sometimes holding its line to beat the outside edge. One of those inswingers accounted for Jonny Bairstow while Dawid Malan was troubled by the one that held its line.

When Joe Root and Malan were accounted for fairly early in the chase, the cat was among the pigeons. The most impressive aspect of the Afghan performance was that they were in charge for most of the second innings. This was no smash-and-grab result.

Irrespective of the runs or the speed at which Gurbaz scored, the feature that caught the eye was the cricketing shots on display. Gurbaz didn’t throw the coaching manual away, just made a few modifications to go with white-ball cricket and the demands of the situation, by extending his arms to hit over the top.

The carnage

Chris Woakes is at his most potent in typical English conditions, and the way Gurbaz took to him in his opening spell, the seamer would have wished he had stayed home. He is not blessed with express pace, which often makes him cannon fodder if there isn’t much help from the surface. A short ball in the third over, that didn’t climb much above hip height, was squatted deep over the mid-wicket fence. The Kotla boundaries are on the shorter side, but the shot landed well into the sizable crowd in that section.

That prompted Woakes to pitch the ball up, only to be creamed over and through the off-side repeatedly, as his first three overs bled 31 runs. At the other end, Reece Topley brought some semblance of control to proceedings but he too faced the brunt of Gurbaz’s blade from time to time, whenever the tall left-arm seamer offered any width.

Sam Curran, brought on quite early by captain Buttler to stem the flow of runs, fared little better. Gurbaz displayed his versatility with a cover drive, a clip off his pads and a pull for six off successive deliveries. When spin was introduced in the form of Adil Rashid, the leg-spinner was welcomed with a hard sweep for four, to bring up a 33-ball fifty in just the 11th over, and later a pick-up shot for six over deep mid-wicket.

Sam Curran, brought on quite early by captain Jos Buttler to stem the flow of runs, fared little better. Gurbaz displayed his versatility with a cover drive, a clip off his pads and a pull for six off successive deliveries. When spin was introduced in the form of Adil Rashid, the leg-spinner was welcomed with a hard sweep for four, to bring up a 33-ball fifty in just the 11th over, and later a pick-up shot for six over deep midwicket.

Upper cut a la Sachin

But the shot that really got the crowd going came against the express pace of Mark Wood, an upper cut for six reminiscent of Sachin Tendulkar’s blow against Shoaib Akhtar at Centurion 2003. The short ball, above shoulder height, was met with an open bat-face that sent the ball soaring beyond third man. When Wood tried to tuck Gurbaz up, he was helped along the way to the fine-leg fence by getting inside the line.

One wonders how many Afghanistan would have ended with – while not forgetting the resourceful innings from Ikram Alikhil, the wicketkeeper who came in the team replacing Najibullah Zadran, ironically to take some load off Gurbaz, and the happy hitting from Rashid Khan and Mujib ur Rehman towards the end – had someone in the top order provided the opener significant support.

The biggest heroes in Afghan cricket thus far have been the bowlers – Rashid and Mohammad Nabi the names that come to mind readily. But if the team has to rise further in the ranks, they need batsmen who can make runs consistently across formats. And if they are as easy on the eye and technically proficient as Gurbaz, all the better.