Sam Curran took a sensational five-for as England registered a five-wicket win over Afghanistan in their Super 12 match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 at Perth Stadium.
Curran used the short ball, and the occasional full delivery to great effect, removing Ibrahim Zadran, Usman Ghani, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, and Fazalhaq Farooqi to become the first English cricketer to take five wickets in a T20I. His bowling performance helped England bowl out a gritty Afghanistan side for just 112 in 19.4 overs. Ibrahim (32) and Ghani (30), batting under difficult conditions, top-scored for Afghanistan.
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England then chased down the target with five wickets and 11 deliveries to spare. Liam Livingstone top-scored with an unbeaten 29-ball 21, while Jos Buttler, Davin Malan and Alex Hales scored 18, 18 and 19 respectively.
Bowling first after winning the toss, England kept the Afghanistan batters under pressure from the very start. Their bowlers restricted the Afghans to under six runs per over in the Power-play with Mark Wood taking the wicket of Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Mohammad Nabi’s men still had wickets in hand but England’s brilliant fielding slowed down Afghanistan’s run scoring.
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In the seventh over, Zazai played off Ben Stokes towards deep cover with Livingstone grabbing an excellent catch. Then in the 12th over, Moeen Ali completed a fine catching effort to send Ibrahim back to the pavilion while Adil Rashid raced from mid-on to take another impressive catch offered by Najibullah Zadran. Then, Buttler dived to produce another blinder, with Mohammad Nabi being the unfortunate batter.
Left-arm pacer Curran claimed the wicket of Ibrahim Zadran in the middle overs and then came back at the death to take four more wickets. He finally registered figures of 3.4-0-10-5.
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Chasing a little over 5.50 runs per over, England got off to a solid start with Alex Hales and Jos Buttler putting on 35 runs for the opening wicket. However, they lost four wickets in the space of just 46 runs during the middle overs to give the Afghans a glimmer of hope.
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But Livingstone stepped up, picking apart Afghanistan’s bowlers to score an unbeaten 29 from 21 deliveries and in the process, guiding England home to victory. Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Rashid, Fareed Malik and Nabi took a wicket each while Rashid Khan finished with 1 for 17 from four overs.
England also gained a significant boost in their NRR (+0.620) while Afghanistan were left with an NRR of -0.620.
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Brief Scores
Afghanistan 112 in 19.4 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 32; Sam Curran 5-10)
England 113/5 in 18.1 overs (Livingstone 29 not out; Rashid Khan 1-17)
