Match Details

AFG vs ENG 14th Match, T20 WC 2022

team important image
ENG
113-518.1
England won by 5 wickets 🏆
AFG
19.4112-10
team image
16th Over:
2
W
0
1
1
1
 
= 5
17th Over:
1
1
1
0
1
0
 
= 4
Last Over:
2
1
2
0
0
2
 
= 7
This Over:
1
wd
 
= 2

Player of the Match

Sam Curran Logo
Sam Curran Jersy
Sam Curran
England
5/10
ENGENG - 2nd Innings
SessionOpenPASS
6 Over 5140
10 Over 6962
AFGAFG - 1st Innings
SessionOpenPASS
6 Over 4335
10 Over 6355
15 Over 9389
20 Over 132112

Commentary

All
Highlights
Overs
W
6s
4s
Inn 1
Inn 2
Milestone
7:58 PM IST | So that's a goodbye to the first day of this particular stage of the T20 World Cup. England took the chase quite deep, and Afghanistan's bowling is to be credited for this.

We shall look forward to a lot more action from Australia in the coming days - not just from ICC's marque event, but also from the Women's WBBL. Stay tuned to our network. Until then, it's Arijit Kundu signing off alongside co-commentator Akshaya Krishna Polya and scorer/analyst Paras Yadav.
Jos Buttler | England Captain: "Absolutely, we were good today and won the match. Some good bowling performances from them. For a moment, we were in some trouble. But the guys were handy enough with the bat to take us through.

Absolutely, we bowled well. It was a great game. It is fun to keep the wickets against Mark Wood. He buzzes through. He had those injuries to his back and ankle of late. He is a tough competitor. Hopefully, he will stay the same throughout the game.

Yeah, Sam always wants the ball in his hand. He asks for it, which is the most important thing about him. He bowled well in the death overs. Absolutely, they bowled well and kept us on the back foot. But it was a great performance by the bowlers."
Mohammad Nabi | Afghanistan Captain: "Yeah, it's not a good start for the tournament. But we came across a good team. Everyone knows that England is a great team. We need to be on our toes when we play against England, Pakistan, New Zealand, or Australia. Yeah, the boys played really well. They took a few brilliant catches, and hence we fell short of our target. We thought about 150, but we didn't bat well to get to that. We have a good group of spinners. Me and Rashid Khan have a good experience bowling here in Australia as we play here in the Big Bash. We need to be on our mark and play good cricket in the next game.
Sam Curran (Player of the Match for 3.4-0-10-5): "Yeah exactly, I think, the Afghanistan team made things tricky with a lot of world-class spinners in them. Yeah, we've seen that, any team can beat anyone I guess.

It's been an incredible day to be in. Hopeful to keep the confidence and the momentum in the group. Yeah, I think it was a good preparation with not many warm-up games except one against Pakistan. I think Ireland will be a tricky one and hoping for another good game. We are trying to be as adaptable as possible. We are trying to be as good and adaptable according to the situation. Thank You."
7:39 PM IST | An anti-climax end to a stuttering run chase as England keep the nerves to beat Afghanistan by 5 wickets with 11 deliveries to fare!

Chasing a small target of 113, England took a cautious approach. Both Jos Buttler and Alex Hales didn’t go hammer and tonk in the powerplay. But they added 35 runs for the first wicket before Buttler (18 off 18) was found wanting to play a pull shot. Hales (19 off 20) was the next one to go, just after team fifty. Dawid Malan (18 off 30) struggled to get going and was taken care of by Mujeeb, thanks to a flying Mohammad Nabi. Before this, Afghanistan got rid of the dangerous Ben Stokes (2 off 4).

While Liam Livingstone batted out of his natural instincts as he rotated the strike well by placing them in the gaps, Harry Brook (7 off 6) holed out at long-on, trying to up and over. In the end, it was Livingstone (29* off 21) and Moeen Ali (8 off 10) who didn’t allow the opponents to sneak in to spoil their party.

Earlier, England won the toss and invited Afghanistan to bat first. The decision of Jos Buttler was proved to be gold dust as the English seamers made the ball talk. Afghan batters couldn’t able to bat in the ball as the bowlers beat the many times. Once Mark Wood found the outside edge of Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10 off 9), Afghanistan didn’t recover. They struggled to get the timing right and sometimes even failed to put the bat on the ball. 

Though Ibrahim Zadran (32 off 32) and Usman Ghani (30 off 30) did score around 30, there was no flow in those innings. Sam Curran was brutal with the ball as he took care of the lower-order, running through them to bag the first five-fer in T20Is for an Englishmen. This wonderful spell from Curran (3.4-0-10-5) didn’t allow the Asian country to bat out the overs, as they were skittled out for 112 in 19.4 overs. Other bowlers, Mark Wood and Ben Stokes, scalped a couple of wickets while Chris Woakes picked a wicket.

Stay tuned for the presentations!
18.2 A Omarzai to M Ali
WD What a way to win the match!! 🌝 Short and goes over the skull of Moeen, the latter leaves and a wide signaled by umpire, Chris Brown. England wins the game by 5 wickets with 11 balls to spare and they have started the tournament in the way they would've desired to.
18.1 A Omarzai to L Livingstone
1 Short and angling down the leg stump. Liam dances down the ground and pulls it towards the deep square leg region for a single. Need one more run to win!!
OVER 18
England
111/5
Moeen Ali
8(10)
Liam Livingstone
28(20)
Mohammad Nabi
1-16(3.0)
17.6 M Nabi to M Ali
2 On the middle stick this time and Ali clips this one through the square leg region for a double. This was a bit uppish towards the middle and leg.
17.5 M Nabi to M Ali
0 A soft punch towards the short covers fielder and Ali gets none. Length and on the off.
17.4 M Nabi to M Ali
0 Down the leg stump, drifting delivery and the batter works it across the line for none.
17.3 M Nabi to M Ali
2 Hangs back and slaps this a bit uppishly over the extra cover region for a double. Excellent running between the wickets. Fuller and around the off.
17.2 M Nabi to L Livingstone
1 An inside edge that goes towards the square leg region for a single. Full and a bit slingy again, on the off stump.
17.1 M Nabi to L Livingstone
2 A misfield fetches the England batters two runs. Floated on the full, and near the off and the batter drives it with the bounce towards deep extra covers.
OVER 17
England
104/5
Moeen Ali
4(6)
Liam Livingstone
25(18)
Fazalhaq Farooqi
1-24(4.0)
16.6 F Farooqi to M Ali
0 Short of a length into the left hander, over the back of Ali, and Ali ducks underneath the ball to let it go.
16.5 F Farooqi to L Livingstone
1 Almost a yorker on the leg stump and Liam flicks this one towards the right of cow corner for a single.
Commentary