Ali Martin’s report has landed from Lahore which is my cue to make like England and depart this scene. Thanks for joining us, commiserations England and congratulations Afghanistan. That was a belting game of cricket but one side has to lose, the ramifications of England’s defeat will likely reverberate very soon.
The OBO will return… until then – goodbye.
Gareth Wilson sums up a pretty bleak mood in the OBO inbox:
“Hi Jim- it’s a tough one to take. Credit obviously to two outstanding performances by Ibrahim with the bat and Azmat with the ball for Afghanistan.
But for England, just sub par all through the team except for Root. Every other batter was out to a bad shot, which statistically is incredible. As for the bowling- you know you’re in trouble when Livingstone is the best of the bunch.
Team selection and strategy all wrong- so even the management has questions to answer.
So so poor.”
