Perth, Oct 22: After winning the toss and putting Afghanistan to bat first, England led by Curran and supported by brilliant outfield catching made short work of the Afghanistan batting under lights in their T20 World Cup opener here on Saturday.
Uzman Zadran (32) and Usman Ghani (30) featured with the bat for Afghanistan but from 109/5 lost 5/3 off 12 balls as the batting lost its way against Curran, who was on a hat trick starting the last over of the innings. Only eight boundaries and three sixes were hit in the entire Afghan innings with Zadran and Ghani hitting six boundaries between them.
Afghanistan was never in the hunt for a challenging total against England’s disciplined bowling and brilliant out cricket that kept the batting in check throughout the innings.
Curran, playing in his 30th T20 international, took 4-0 in six balls to hurry Afghanistan’s meek capitulation on a wicket that offered plenty of pace and bounce to the four-pronged swing and seam attack. His previous best was 3-25 against Australia in Canberra in the lead up to this tournament only 10 days ago.
Curran was well supported by Ben Stokes and Mark Wood with two wickets apiece, and Chris Woakes with one.
But the feature of the day was England’s catching — three in the outfield by Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, and then wicketkeeper Jos Butler taking a left-handed blinder diving to his left to get rid of captain Mohammad Nabi off swing bowler Mark Wood.
England didn’t have it easy either in its run-chase, and lost five wickets regularly before Livingstone and Ali (8 not out) saw the side through. Butler (18), Alex Hales (19) and Dawid Malan (18) threatened but poor shot selection contributed their dismissals.
England will play Ireland on Wednesday, and Ashes-rival Australia on Friday in its next two outings in Group 1 of the Super 12s. (AP)
