New Delhi, India

On Sunday (Oct 15), defending champions England lost to Afghanistan by 69 runs in match 13 of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 edition at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Opting to bowl first, Jos Buttler-led England didn't start well as Afghanistan rode on opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz's 80 and Ikram Alikhil's 58 and cameos from Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman to post a challenging 284 in 49.5 overs. In reply, England only managed 215 in 40.3 overs as the Asian side pulled off a huge upset. 

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With this defeat, England have now lost two in three games in the CWC 2023 edition. While they still remain in the top five (fifth), their journey won't be easy going ahead. Courtesy of a loss to the Afghans, the 2019 winners also registered an unwanted record. England have now become the first team to lose to all 11 Test-playing nations in the history of ODI World Cups.

ENGLAND FIRST TO LOSE TO ALL TEST-PLAYING NATIONS

In their ODI World Cup history, England have lost to Australia, India, West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. They lost their first game to arch-rivals Australia in 1975 before losing the 1979 World Cup final to West Indies. Their first defeat to India and Pakistan came in 1983 and 1987, respectively. The likes of New Zealand and South Africa achieved their first win over England in 1992 and 1996, respectively.

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Also read: CWC '23: 'Many players are undercooked' - Former cricketer slams England after big defeat vs Afghanistan

In 1992, Zimbabwe also thrashed England whereas Sri Lanka won their maiden World Cup encounter over the English line-up in 1996.

Ireland and Bangladesh attained their first-ever World Cup wins over England in the 2011 edition before Afghanistan joined the party in the ongoing edition.

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At the post-match presentation, Buttler said, "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. 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."

England will now face South Africa in match 20 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday (Oct 21).

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