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England captain Jos Buttler admitted his side was "outplayed" by Afghanistan in their ICC World Cup 2023 clash in Delhi.
Afghanistan skittled out England for 215 to claim their second Cricket World Cup victory, eight years after defeating Scotland in Australia. This time, the defending champions were on the receiving end. Buttler said his side failed to execute well with both bat and ball as Afghanistan were on top of its game. "Disappointing to win the toss and concede that many, me missing that first ball down the leg side set the tone. Credit to Afghanistan, they outplayed us today. It came down to execution, we weren't quite at the level we'd like to be with both bat and ball. They have some fantastic bowlers, the dew didn't come in as much as we expected, the ball held up a bit too. They bowled dead straight and kept the stumps in play, we just weren't quite good enough," Jos Buttler said in a post-match presentation. However, the England skipper said he believed that his team have the character and resilience to come back from their shock defeat to Afghanistan. He added that England were hoping for more dew to descend on the surface and impact the game but that did not happen. "You got to let these defeats hurt, there's no point in getting over things too quickly, we need to reflect. There's a lot of character in this group, we need to show a lot of resilience and come back stronger. We need to have guys being able to perform under pressure and that's what all of us will be working hard towards," the England captain said. Sparking delirious scenes in the Afghan dugout, the men for the warrior country upset the defending champions by 69 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national capital on Sunday. Mujeeb Ur Rahman shone with his all-round performance with both bat and ball as he scored a quickfire 28 off 16 before leading his team's lion-hearted bowling effort with 3 wickets. Rashid Khan bagged three wickets while Mohammad Nabi scalped two. For England, Harry Brook was the highest scorer with 66 runs off 61 balls. England will next face South Africa at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. (ANI)
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