🏏ICC Men's T20I WC 2022 - Super 12 - Group 1 - ENG vs AFG🏏 - Page 7

AFG 112 (19.4)

ENG 106/5 (17.1)

CRR: 6.17 REQ: 2.47

That is the end of the game.

Congratulations to England for winning the match.🥳

Cheers..

England begin their World Cup campaign with a win. They would have ideally wanted to chase this down much earlier though. After opting to field, they were outstanding in the first half of the match. Buttler employed just five bowlers and the four pacers accounted for all the ten wickets which also included an impressive fifer from Sam Curran.

Afghanistan 112

England (18.1/20 ov, T:113) 113/5

England won by 5 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)

So a low-scoring entertainer in Perth follows a high-scoring one-sided game in Sydney. Who knew what would have been had Afghanistan even scored 130? The pitch always looked pacy, and thus challenging for them, even as they ensured they didn't let England have it easy. A bit of a middle-order collapse did shake England up, as Nabi, Mujeeb and co did their bit to try and defend a small score.

AFG 112 (19.4)

ENG 113/5 (18.1)

England won by 5 wkts

PLAYER OF THE MATCH

Sam Curran

Congratulations to England team and to all the supporters. 🤗

Tomorrow's matches---

Sunday, October 23 -- Sri Lanka vs. Ireland: 9. 30 AM

Bellerive Oval, Hobart

Sunday, October 23rd --- India vs Pakistan : 1.30 pm

MCG, Melbourne

Sam Curran is the Player of the Match for his 5 for 10: "We saw the way the Afghanistan team made it quite tricky towards the end. They have world-class spinners... You've seen in the qualifying groups, with the West Indies missing out that any teams can... Hopefully we can keep playing with confidence and keep winning. To come here and start with a win is great. Ireland will be another tricky game. I was just trying to be as adaptable as possible. Trying to get better in different phases of the game. Really enjoying my cricket at the moment"

Jos Buttler, the winning captain: "Coming into the tournament, there were a few nerves. To get out there and get a win was fantastic. There were [fantastic catches]! I thought it was a fantastic effort. I enjoyed that [his own catch]. Mark Wood is always fun to keep wicket to... It is very vital to have someone who can bowl at that express pace. He is a great asset. [Sam Curran] has got a great character for death-bowling. We know it's a really tough period of the game to bowl in. It goes against you... Felt like the ball swung early. We were challenged, and felt like we had to pay respects to the bowlers. Could have been more fluent, but full credit to Afghanistan"

Mohammad Nabi, the Afghanistan captain: "Good start to the tournament... We didn't put up a good score. England is the best T20 team in the world, and recently they played good cricket against Australia and Pakistan. Boys played really well. [There were] two or three good catches; we thought 145 would be a good total to fight. This is our plan: put a good total on the board. We have good spinners - me, Rashid and Mujeeb - who play the Big Bash here. We'll learn and we hope we improve in the next game"