By Karan Agrawal 
Afghanistan registered their second consecutive win over England in ODI courtesy of an all-round performance in their second match of the 2025 Champions Trophy played in Lahore. The Hashmatullah Shahidi led side posted an above par total of 325 runs after being reduced to 39-3 after the end of first powerplay and were guided by Ibrahim Zadran who scored 177 runs becoming the highest individual scorer for Afghanistan in ODI. Zadran’s knock was also the highest individual score by a batter in the history of Champions Trophy. The right hander was well supported by captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi all of who chipped in with valuable contribution to take the team past the 300 run mark.
The Praise
Reacting to a herculean batting effort by the Afghan batters, head coach Jonathan Trott said, “To be able to get to 325 after being 39 for 3 after the powerplay – it just showed the quality of Ibrahim as a player. But also, if a batter got in, it’s quite hard to stop them on these wickets here. And I think he was helped by the way that Azmat came in and the way that he played, took the pressure off him, the way that Nabi came in and played and took the pressure off him, Ibrahim could just play and accelerate it without even really knowing it.”
The Effort
Trott was in awe of Ibrahim Zadran’s batting as he admired the shots that he played. In the words of former England batter, “I think he played some fantastic cricket shots, certainly the straight six off Jofra Archer comes to mind, and some various other shots. And so, I’m really pleased for him. He’s been out for a little bit of time and I hope – he’s looked a little bit out of rhythm. But hopefully he’s found it now. He’s certainly found it, but hopefully he can continue this form, which is a memorable knock for him and one that he’ll remember for a long time but hopefully he can repeat it again on Friday.”
The Resilience
Talking about what makes this Afghanistan team win matches from tricky situations, Trott touched upon the fact that resilience, combined with match awareness, is what brings out the best of the Afghanistan team. “I think obviously this fight but there’s a resilience to them – to all of them. And I think if you add to some cricketing experience and cricketing match awareness with regards to batting in particular, with regards to how you pace the innings, we saw Ibrahim the way that he’s done today, we’ve seen Gurbaz do it in the past, and we’ve seen various players come in, that it’s not always down to one person. So that self-belief is important and it starts within, but it’s also quite infectious and it spreads within the squad,” added Trott.