PERTH: England’s left-arm pacer Sam Curran picked up his maiden five-wicket haul before batters held their nerves calm to seal a commanding victory over Afghanistan in the Group 1 fixture of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.
Set to chase a mere 113, England cruised to victory in the 19th over with five wickets to spare.
Afghanistan bowlers kept things tight for the English batters but Liam Livingstone hung on and guided his side to glory with a sensible knock of 29.
The right-handed batter faced 21 deliveries and smashed three boundaries in the course of his match-winning knock.
English captain Jos Buttler (18), experienced opener Alex Hales (19) and Dawid Malan (19) also made significant contributions.
For Afghanistan, Mohammad Nabi, Fareed Ahmad, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Fazalhaq Farooqi struck out a batter each.
Afghanistan, batting first on the invitation of England captain Jos Buttler, stumbled for a skimpy 112 in the 20th over.
Ibrahim Zadran and Usman Ghani put on a brief fight in the middle as they stitched a 27-run partnership for the third wicket to anchor the innings.
Curran, however, dampened their efforts as he castled Ghani in the 12th over to break the budding partnership. Ibrahim remained the top-scorer for Afghanistan as he scored a run-a-ball 32.
Following his dismissal, Afghanistan then ran into a frustrating collapse and could not recover. Usman, who was the other notable run-getter also walked back in the final over.
He scored a gritty 30 off as many deliveries, while no support from the other end, resulted in Afghanistan, bowling out for a below-par total.
Curran led the bowling attack for England as he picked up five wickets for 10 runs, while Mark Wood and Ben Stokes bagged two each.
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