ENG vs AFG (Match 14) – Highlights
England and Afghanistan met in the 14th match of the T20 World Cup on Saturday. Batting first in the match, England’s bowlers attacked Afghanistan and Afghanistan somehow set up a target. In pursuit of that target, England reached the target before the allotted 20 overs were over. As a result, Afghanistan had to leave the field with a loss. Along with that, Sam Curran won the man of the match title by bowling great for England.
They have no shortage of talent in the T20, But Afghanistan had to surrender in front of England in their first match in T20 World Cup in Australia. Batting first, the Afghans were bowled out for just 112 runs after facing the English bowling cannon.
After losing the toss, Afghanistan lost the devastating batsman Hazratullah Zazai. He departed with 7 runs off 17 balls. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, another astonishing batsman of the Afghans, departed with 10 runs off 9 balls.
Ibrahim Zadran came down to bat at one down and Usman Ghani tried to stand up against the English bowlers. Ibrahim Zadran scored 32 runs off 32 balls and Usman Ghani scored 30 runs off 30 balls. The next batters were just in wicket loss procession.
Najibullah Zadran (13), Mohammad Nabi (3), Azmatullah Omarzai (8), Rashid Khan (0), Mujib-ur Rahman (0), and Fazal Haque Farooqi (0) all failed and Afghanistan was bowled out for 112 runs.
Young pacer Sam Curran bowled devastatingly for England. Curran took 5 wickets with only 10 runs after bowling 3.4 overs (22 balls). His devastating bowling basically ended the innings of the Afghans.
Not only Curran but there was also a competition to be stingy in bowling among the English bowlers. About who can give fewer runs. Ben Stokes gave only 19 runs in 4 overs. Took 2 wickets. Mark Wood gave 23 runs in 4 overs. Took 2 wickets. Chris Woakes took 1 wicket with 24 runs in 4 overs. Adil Rashid was in relative decline. He gave 32 runs in 4 overs.
The target is only 113 runs. England, one of the favorite teams of the tournament, had to sweat to chase this goal. Jos Buttler’s team had to play 18.1 overs to score 113 runs and they lost 5 wickets. Nevertheless, England got off to a good start in the T20 World Cup by beating Afghanistan by 5 wickets at the Perth Stadium with 11 balls to spare.
England is one of the teams that are considered to be devastating in this World Cup. However, no English batsman was seen to play big innings while chasing only 113 runs against a team like Afghanistan. Liam Livingstone scored the maximum 29 runs.
He remained unbeaten on 29 runs off 21 balls with 3 boundaries. Moeen Ali left the field after scoring 8 runs off 10 balls.
The two openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales started fairly well. They made a pair of 36 runs in 5 overs. At this time, English captain Jos Buttler departed after scoring 18 runs off Fazal Haque Farooqi. Alex Hales scored 19 runs off 20 balls. Besides, Dawid Malan scored 18 runs.
Among the Afghan bowlers, Fazal Haque Farooqi, Mujib-ur Rahman, Rashid Khan, Farid Ahmed, and Mohammad Nabi took 1 wicket each.
ENG vs AFG Scoreboard
England – 113/5 (18.1)
Afghanistan – 112/10 (19.4)
Result – England won by 5 wickets
Player of the match – Sam Curran
ENG vs AFG Playing XIs
| ENG | Jos Buttler (c & wk), Dawid Malan, Alex Hales, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid |
| AFG | Mohammad Nabi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Najibullah Zadran, Usman Ghani, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad Malik |