Jos Buttler's side were roundly outplayed on their way to a shock 69-run defeat on Sunday (Monday morning AEDT) and have now lost two of their first three games in India to leave their chances of emerging from the group stage hanging by a thread.
Set 285 to win after putting their opponents at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, England imploded, bowled out for 215 in front of a frenzied crowd at who cheered Afghanistan's triumph as if it were glorious home win.
In terms of English stumbles on the biggest stage in one-day cricket this was a result to rank alongside the 2011 loss to Ireland in Bengaluru - a game that current Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott played in.
Afghanistan are a more talented side but two thumping losses against India and Bangladesh, allied with England's hard-won reputation in white-ball cricket, still made this a seismic result.
Afghanistan were dismissed for 284 with one ball of their innings remaining, before only Harry Brook could offer any serious resistance with a 61-ball 66 in England's reply which came to an end with 9.3 overs still remaining.
It was only the Afghans' second-ever win at the World Cup, the other coming against Scotland in 2015 in their first appearance.
A disappointed England captain Jos Buttler said: "It's about execution and we were not at the level we wanted to be with the ball and the bat.
"They are a really skilful attack with some fantastic spin bowlers. They put us under lots of pressure and we weren't quite good enough today."
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