Afghanistan eliminated ragged England from the Champions Trophy with a stunning eight-run victory on Thursday morning.
Wild scenes erupted as Afghanistan players and staff flooded the field when the final wicket fell on the second last ball of the match.
"There's an invasion here from Afghanistan and why not, what a special moment in their cricket history," iconic commentator Ian Smith said.
"England sit on the balcony in despair, absolute despair."
England's underfire captain Jos Buttler admits he will need to consider his future as skipper of the team in the coming weeks.
"We need to consider all possibilities and get English cricket back to where we should be in white-ball cricket," Buttler said.
"Personally I need to work out, am I part of the problem or the solution?
"I'm not going to make any emotional decisions right here, right now. I'll take some time to work that out personally and the guys in charge will have their own views, too."
England's Liam Livingstone reacts as Afghanistan's Gulbadin Naib celebrates after his dismissal. AP
Opening batter Ibrahim Zadran smashed the tournament’s highest-ever individual score of 177 off 146 balls with 12 fours and six sixes and led Afghanistan to 7-325.
England was bowled out for 317 with Joe Root's 120 off 111 balls going in vain.
Root had kept England in the hunt, but once he gloved fast bowler Azmat Omarzai (5-58) behind the wickets in the 46th over, Afghanistan kept its nerve despite a few fumbles in the field to record a memorable win with one ball to spare.
It was Afghanistan's second win against England in a major 50-over ICC tournament; it recorded a 69-run victory in the 2023 World Cup in India.
“As a team we are happy and I’m sure the whole nation will be happy with this win,” Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said.
“The beauty of our team is we have talented youngsters and at the same time we have senior guys who are at the top level. Hopefully we take this momentum with us for the next game against Australia.”
Afghanistan must beat two-time champion Australia in its last Group B match at the same venue on Saturday to seal its second straight semi final in an ICC tournament after playing last year's T20 World Cup playoffs.
England, which lost a high-scoring game to Australia at the same venue, will wrap up its disappointing run in the tournament with the match against semi final contender South Africa at Karachi on Saturday.
Root held the chase together after England lost Phil Salt (12) and newly promoted No.3 Jamie Smith (9) in a wobbly start to a tall chase.
Omarzai knocked back the top of Salt’s stumps in his second over and England’s experiment with Smith at No.3 didn’t work for second straight game when he skied Mohammad Nabi’s (2-57) first ball to Omarzai at backward point.
Ben Duckett, who hit 165 against Australia on Sunday, couldn’t capitalise on a dropped catch at 30 before Rashid Khan (1-66) had won a leg before wicket through television review, but captain Jos Buttler (38) put the chase back on track with 83-run partnership with Root.
Afghanistan's Azmatullah Omarzai and teammates celebrate. AP
Omarzai broke the threatening stand in his return spell when Buttler top-edged the fast bowler just after Root had raised his century off 98 balls with 10 fours.
Afghanistan was sloppy in the field for a while but Omarzai's dismissals of Root and Jamie Overton (32) sealed the win. Omarzai completed his five-wicket haul when Zadran caught No.10 Adil Rashid.
“Another fantastic game of cricket, but disappointing to come out on the wrong side,” Buttler said.
“He (Root) played an unbelievable innings tonight (but) he needed one of the other top six batters to stay in with him and take the game deeper.
“They got away from us there in the last 10 overs.
“Credit to Ibrahim, he played a fantastic innings. If we look back and reflect, 113 off the last 10 pushed them up to a score that was a very good on that pitch.”