England started their Twenty20 World Cup marketing campaign with a five-wicket win over Afghanistan on October 22 courtesy of seamer Sam Curran’s haul of 5-10 and a elegant effort within the subject.
Afghanistan crumbled to 112 all out in 19.4 overs after being despatched in to bat. Ibrahim Zadran (32) and Usman Ghani (30) supplied the one resistance earlier than falling to Curran, who claimed his career-best figures in 3.4 overs.
England chased down the modest goal with 11 balls to spare, reaching 113-5 and sustaining their unblemished report at Perth Stadium after three visits.
“We do a lot of hard work on our fielding, it will be a massive factor in the tournament I think,” man-of-the-match Curran advised reporters.
“We knew it would be a tricky chase… we won in the end and that’s the most important thing.”
In what was a sedate powerplay of 35-1 for Afghanistan, opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the primary to depart, caught behind for 10 throughout a fiery opening spell by Mark Wood (2-23) who clocked speeds reaching 154 kph.
England’s bowlers continued to cramp the batsmen throughout the center overs, aided by spectacular fielding by Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid who held on to working catches off Ben Stokes (2-19) to ship Hazrat Zazai (seven) and Najibullah Zadran (13) on their means.
Before Curran cleaned up the tail, captain-keeper Jos Buttler joined in on the acrobatic act, finishing a flying one-handed catch after captain Mohammad Nabi tickled Wood down the leg-side on three.
In England’s response, Alex Hales (19) was dropped twice earlier than Fazalhaq Farooqi caught the third likelihood.
Nabi held a diving catch at cowl to see off Dawid Malan (18) and though wickets fell commonly as England batted conservatively, they by no means discovered themselves in any actual hazard.
Livingstone top-scored with an unbeaten 29 from 21 balls.
“We need to get better at playing the full 40 overs,” mentioned Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott.
“I’d have liked less dropped catches, less fumbles, less misfields.”
Source: www.thehindu.com
