England’s title defence at the Cricket World Cup is in trouble after losing to Afghanistan by 69 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday in one of the biggest shocks in the tournament’s history.

Afghanistan stunned England to win the group match, setting the defending champions 285 for victory after a blistering knock of 80 from opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz and a half-century at the death from Ikram Alikhil helped them post a fighting total.

It was Afghanistan’s second-highest at a World Cup after they scored 288 against the West Indies in 2019, but it was a target England would have been confident of reaching.

However, England crumbled to 215 all out in reply with Harry Brook the only batter to adapt to the conditions with a fighting 66 as spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan took three wickets each for Afghanistan.

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England – the defending champions – now only have one win from three games after beating Bangladesh by 137 runs in Dharamsala but losing to New Zealand by nine wickets.

Afghanistan had lost both their opening games against Bangladesh and hosts India by considerable margins.

They came into the match having lost 16 of their last 17 World Cup games, their only victory coming against Scotland in 2015.

Put into bat after England won the toss, Afghanistan got off to a flyer with a 114-run opening stand between Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, as the duo scored at eight an over in the first powerplay.