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LAHORE, Feb 26 (APP):An unbroken partnership of 66 runs between Ibrahim Zadran and Hashmatullah Shahidi helped Afghanistan reach 103-3 in the 25th over of their innings against England in an all-important fixture of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 at the Gaddafi stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Zardran and Shahidi got together when Afghanistan were in a point of bother after losing three wickets in 9th over of the innings as they decided to bat first on winning the toss. The two batters did the repair work after the early damage and took the team to a safer territory with eyes on 250 plus total.
Ibrahim Zadran 52 (67) scored 13th half-century of his career in the course of the 66 run partnership while captain HAshmatullah Shahidi batted on 32 (55) runs.
Earlier, Jofra Archer inspired English pace attack put brakes on the Afghanistan batting machine as he claimed three wickets off his five overs and restricted Afghanistan to 37-3 in the first powerplay of the match at the Gaddafi stadium here on Wednesday afternoon.
Jofra Archer bowled with pace and precision to claim the scalps of the top three Afghanistan batters including Rahmanullah Gurban 6 (15), Sediqullah Atal 4 (4) and Rehmat Shah 4 (9) for 21 runs.
Mark Wood was more economical of the two and conceded 14 runs off four overs without any wicket. James Overton, who replaced injured Brydon Carse in the second match for his first ever ICC event, conceded two runs in his first over.
Joe Root 4-0-13-0 continued the containment work with Livingstone conceded 11 runs off his two overs in search of the fourth scalp.