AFG vs ENG, World Cup 2023: Reece Topley gives injury scare, limps off the field

England suffered a blow during their latest match at the ICC World Cup 2023 against Afghanistan as their pacer Reece Topley limped off the field after injuring his knee while fielding at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday (October 15).

The incident happened during the 16th over of the match when Reece Topley made a diving effort on the boundary line. The effort appeared awkward as well while the Englishman failed to stop the boundary. He soon signalled to the dressing room, asking for medical attention.

He was seen limping off the field with an England medical staff soon after while the match continued. While the gravity of the injury is not known, Reece Toley returned to the field three overs later. Interestingly, Afghanistan lost three wickets in that period Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz were back to the pavillion in quick succession.

Adil Rashid took two of the three wickets but the biggest dismissal was of Gurbaz, who was run out following a bad call by the captain Hashmatullah Shahid. The opener scored the bulk of runs with a 57-ball 80 as Afghans plummeted from 114/0 to 122/3.

Things worsened for Afghanistan further as they were down to 191/6 by the 37th over before Ikram Alikhil and Rashid Khan had a crucial stand down the order to help Afghanistan back in track. At the time of writing, Afganistan were 231/6 in 43 overs.

Afghanistan came into the game on the back of a lopsided loss to India at the same venue as Rohit Sharma made lightwork of their bowling with his array of shots.

Teams:

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (wk/c), Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Reece Topley.