Sam Curran’s 5-for helps Eng to an overwhelming win over Afghan

Perth: Sam Curran dished out a haunting bowling gig in the Super 12 faceoff in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup against Afghanistan here on Saturday as England skittled out Mohammed Nabi’s men for a modest 112.

England chased down the target with 5 wickets and 11 balls to spare.

England bowlers kept the Afghanistan batsmen in tight lease right from the word go. They inhibited Afghanistan to below 6 runs per over in the powerplay, but the batting side had too much room to go for a kill as they had wickets in hand. But, Curan spoiled their hopes by coming up with a superb spell to skittle out the rivals.

He bagged well-oiled Ibrahim Zadran’s wicket in the middle-overs and then came back at the death to send back four batsmen to the hut to complete his five-for. The left-arm pacer ended with figures of 3.4-0-10-5 in the end.

England got off to a steady start with Alex Hales and Jos Buttler putting on an opening stand of 35 runs. But they suffered a brief scare in the middle as they went on to lose four wickets in the space of just 46 runs. Afghanistan could also sense that they were back in the game, ICC reported.

But Liam Livingstone stepped up and scored an unbeaten 29 from 21 deliveries to guide England home.

This win also gave England a significant boost in their NRR, which stands at +0.620 right now. Afghanistan fought well with the ball but this loss has left them with a NRR of -0.620 and they will need to work really hard to improve it.

UNI