Sam Curran became the first English player to take a five-wicket haul in a T20 International as he let down Afghanistan’s lower-order batsmen at the end of his innings, taking four wickets for no run in six balls in two overs. Ended with a fantasy figure of the wicket. Instead of finding the accelerator in their final few overs, the Afghans found the self-destruct button, 106 for 5 with three overs to spare, not even using two balls at 112.
A noticeable trend at this stage of the World Cup is that so far the team batting first has won eight out of 14 games. But batting second remains England’s priority and was the choice of Jos Buttler at the toss, and the low target allowed them to rein in their more aggressive attacking instincts. The effort would have been to attack your target with maximum vigor and boost your net run rate quickly.
At the end of the powerplay they were 44 for one, just nine runs more than Afghanistan in the same phase. By the end of the ninth over, Buttler was out for 18, Alex Hales’ catch was dropped twice and caught once, and England were at 52-2. There won’t be many games in this competition when that kind of score is a path other than a disaster for anything.
Meanwhile, England’s fielding was excellent, and they compiled a string of outstanding efforts. Livingstone was first and perhaps best, running short on his right before diving forward to dismiss Zazzai. Jos Buttler finally turned Superman to his left to pick up the ball after a gloved down the leg side off Mohammad Nabi.