T20 World Cup 2022: Sam Curran shines as England beat Afghanistan
Jos Buttler-led England, Sam Curran grabs fifer outclassed Afghanistan in match No.15 of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at the Perth Stadium on Saturday.
England beat Afghanistan: In the second match of the Super-12 round, England defeated Afghanistan by five wickets. Jos Buttler-led England won the toss and decided to bowl first. Afghanistan batted first, could only make 112 runs in 19.4 overs. In response, England achieved the target by losing five wickets in 18.1 overs. Initially struggled by English men, however, middle order batters finished off in style.
ENG vs AFG
England and Afghanistan teams have come face to face three times in T20. England have won all three of these matches. All three matches have been played in the T20 World Cup itself.
Liam Livingstone scored the highest 29 runs for England. Captain Jos Butler and David Malan were dismissed for 18 runs. At the same time, Alex Hales returned to the pavilion after scoring 19 runs. Ben Stokes made two and Harry Brook was dismissed for seven runs. Moin Ali remained unbeaten after scoring eight runs. Except Ajmatullah Omarzai, all the bowlers from Afghanistan got one wicket each.
England Innings
The target of 113 runs was not very difficult for the England team, but the England batsmen did not perform as expected in this match. Captain Butler and Alex Hales made a slow start. Butler was dismissed in the fifth over. Alex Hales was out in the ninth over and by this time England score was 52 runs. David Malan was also dismissed for 18 runs off 30 balls. The strike rate of Liam Livingstone and and Harry Brook in the entire England team was more than 100. However, Afghanistan bowlers gave away 12 runs through wide and made England’s work easier. England beat Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s batting flop
Afganistan got off a poor start and Opener Gurbaz was dismissed at the score of 11 by Mark Wood. Zazai was sent to pavillion after scoring 7 runs. Sam Curran then dismissed Ibrahim Zadran and Usman Ghani at the score of 32 and 30 respectively. Jos Butler caught Nabi on the ball of Wood diving behind the wickets. He made 3 runs. Amatullah and Fareed scored 8 and 3 runs respectively. Three batsmen could not open their account.
New record for England
Sam Curran bowled brilliant in the match, he became the first English bowler to take 5 wickets haul in T20I. He also won the man of the match award ENG vs AFG in T20 WC 2022.
Sam Curran was awarded the player of the match for his match-winning spell against Afghanistan.#CricTracker #SamCurran #ENGvAFG #T20WC2022 pic.twitter.com/vu24GYkeqP
— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) October 22, 2022
Scorecard
| AFGHANISTAN BATTING | R | B | M | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hazratullah Zazai | c Livingstone b Stokes | 7 | 17 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 41.17 |
| Rahmanullah Gurbaz †| c †Buttler b Wood | 10 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 111.11 |
| Ibrahim Zadran | c Ali b Curran | 32 | 32 | 41 | 3 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Usman Ghani | c Livingstone b Curran | 30 | 30 | 60 | 3 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Najibullah Zadran | c Rashid b Stokes | 13 | 11 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 118.18 |
| Mohammad Nabi (c) | c †Buttler b Wood | 3 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 60.00 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | c Stokes b Curran | 8 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 133.33 |
| Rashid Khan | c Hales b Curran | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | c & b Woakes | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Fareed Ahmad | not out | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Fazalhaq Farooqi | c Malan b Curran | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | (lb 4, w 3) | 7 | |||||
| TOTAL | 19.4 Ov (RR: 5.69) | 112 | |||||
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | 0s | 4s | 6s | WD | NB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Stokes | 4 | 0 | 19 | 2 | 4.75 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Chris Woakes | 4 | 0 | 24 | 1 | 6.00 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Mark Wood | 4 | 0 | 23 | 2 | 5.75 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Sam Curran | 3.4 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 2.72 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Adil Rashid | 4 | 0 | 32 | 0 | 8.00 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
England (T: 113 runs from 20 ovs)
| ENGLAND BATTING | R | B | M | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jos Buttler (c)†| c Mujeeb Ur Rahman b Fazalhaq Farooqi | 18 | 18 | 25 | 3 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Alex Hales | c Fazalhaq Farooqi b Fareed Ahmad | 19 | 20 | 41 | 0 | 1 | 95.00 |
| Dawid Malan | c Mohammad Nabi b Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 18 | 30 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 60.00 |
| Ben Stokes | b Mohammad Nabi | 2 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Liam Livingstone | not out | 29 | 21 | 34 | 3 | 0 | 138.09 |
| Harry Brook | c Ibrahim Zadran b Rashid Khan | 7 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 116.66 |
| Moeen Ali | not out | 8 | 10 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Extras | (w 12) | 12 | |||||
| TOTAL | 18.1 Ov (RR: 6.22) | 113/5 | |||||
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | 0s | 4s | 6s | WD | NB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fazalhaq Farooqi | 4 | 0 | 24 | 1 | 6.00 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 1.1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 9.42 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 4 | 0 | 22 | 1 | 5.50 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rashid Khan | 4 | 0 | 17 | 1 | 4.25 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fareed Ahmad | 2 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 11.50 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mohammad Nabi | 3 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 5.33 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Standings
2022 T20 World Cup, Points Table
| Pos | Team | P | W | L | NR | Points | NRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  India | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | +1.319 |
| 2 |  New Zealand | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | +2.113 |
| 3 |  England | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | +0.473 |
| 4 |  AUS | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | -0.173 |
| 5 |  PAK | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | +1.028 |
| 6 |  South Africa | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | +0.874 |
| 7 |  Sri Lanka | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | -0.422 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | -0.74 |
| 9 |  Bangladesh | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -1.276 |
| 10 | Zimbabwe | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -0.313 |
| 11 |  IRE | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | -1.615 |
| 12 |  AFG | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | -0.571 |
Result
England beat Afghanistan; Sam Curran fifer sets a new record for England and best figure for himself.
