Not quite as clinical a chase as Buttler would’ve liked but he will take a win. England, in the end, win comfortably. Sam Curran set up the match with his five-for. England were also brilliant in the field. Afghanistan, in comparison, were lackadaisical in the field, dropping two catches. Those could make all the difference in a small chase. England face Ireland at the MCG on Wednesday at 930 am whereas Afghanistan will take on New Zealand at the same venue at 130 pm. Until then, good night.
END OF MATCH
Fareed Ahmed into the attack. Single and a wide and England go past the finish line. They win their first game in Super 12 stage by five wickets.
ENG 111/5 in 18 overs vs AFG: Nabi into his third. He concedes seven in the over. England need just two to win.
ENG 104/5 in 17 overs vs AFG: Fazal is back into the attack. Four from the over. England inching towards the target. This has been a spirited bowling performance from the Afghans. If only they had held on to those catches.
ENG 100/5 in 16 overs vs AFG: WICKET! Rashid Khan has his first as Harry Brook holes out at long on. Moeen Ali in at 7. Five from Rashid’s last. 4 overs, 1 for 17 and no boundaries off him.
ENG 95/4 in 15 overs vs AFG: Fareed Malik comes back into the attack and Livingstone greets him with two back-to-back fours. 14 from the over.
ENG 81/4 in 14 overs vs AFG: Mujeeb concedes a boundary to Livingstone off the first ball before reeling off a loud lbw appeal off the next ball. Not given. Afghanistan review but the ball was going down leg side. GONE! SENSATIONAL FROM NABI! Malan departs to a brilliant catch by Nabi, who flings himself to his right and takes a stunner at cover. Harry Brook is in next.
ENG 76/3 in 13 overs vs AFG: Nabi continues. Five runs from the over - one brace and three singles. Boundaries have kind of dried up but the target is too small for England batters to fret.
ENG 71/3 in 12 overs vs AFG: Rashid into his third. He has been economical but Afghanistan need wickets! Five singles from the over.
ENG 66/3 in 11 overs vs AFG: Nabi comes into the attack. GONE! After conceding three singles off the first three balls, Nabi clean bowls Stokes! Stokes gave him the charge and got castled for two. Liam Livingstone comes to the crease. 4 singles and a wicket.
ENG 62/2 in 10 overs vs AFG: Rashid to bowl the 10th over. Three singles from the over as teams break for drinks.
ENG 59/2 in 9 overs vs AFG: Left-arm pacer Fareed Malik replaces Rashid. OUT! Hales runs out of luck at last. Third time unlucky for him as he holes out to Fazal! Ben Stokes is in next. Fareed concedes five wides as the last ball sails over Malan and the keeper’s head. Fareed has to bowl that again. Single to finish. England need 54 runs in 66 balls.
ENG 50/1 in 8 overs vs AFG: Spin from both ends as Mujeeb comes on for his third. DROPPED! Hales gets another life! This time it’s the skipper Nabi who drops a catch at long-off - it came flat and fast and should have been taken. 6 runs from the over.
ENG 44/1 in 7 overs vs AFG: Here comes Rashid Khan, immediately after the PowerPlay. Tidy start from the star leggie. Four from Rashid’s first.
ENG 40/1 in 6 overs vs AFG: Mujeeb gets his second over. Hales pulls the second ball behind square for 3. Good comeback from Mujeeb. Just two off the remaining balls.
ENG 35/1 in 5 overs vs AFG: DROPPED! Hales gets a life as Qais drops a simple chance at backward point! Hales rubs salt into the wounds by smacking Fazal’s next delivery over long-on for six. GONE! Buttler perishes off the last ball, good catch by Mujeeb in the deep. Dawid Malan is in next.
ENG 27/0 in 4 overs vs AFG: Mujeeb, the PowerPlay specialist, into the attack in the fourth over. Buttler exploits the larger boundaries and some sloppy fielding from Afghans to collect a couple each off the fourth and fifth balls. Mujeeb ends the over with a dot.
ENG 21/0 in 3 overs vs AFG: Fazal continues. Two slips in place for both openers. Good start to the over. Only one from the first three balls. But Fazal errs in line in the fourth delivery, short and wide, as Buttler slaps it through covers for four more. That extra slip comes off midway through the over. Unlike the English quicks, the Afghan pacers have struggled for control with the new ball. 7 from this over.
ENG 14/0 in 2 overs vs AFG: Azmatullah Omarzai, right-arm fast medium, comes into the attack. Alex Hales is on strike. He starts with a wide ball. Hales gets a single off the first legitimate ball of the over. Buttler carves one to the deep extra cover fence for four more. Nine from the over including a couple of wides.
ENG 5/0 in 1 over vs AFG: Alex Hales and Jos Buttler begin the run chase. Fazalhaq Farooqi, with his left-arm pace, to begin proceedings. Buttler flicks the second ball to the deep square leg fence for four. 5 from the over.
START OF CHASE
Afghanistan were 90 for four and have lost six for the addition of only 32. What a collapse. Credit to England and Curran, who were brilliant with the ball and in the field. Back with the chase shortly. Stokes and Wood took two wickets each while Woakes grabbed one.
Curran to Sky Sports
END OF INNINGS
Sam Curran doesn’t get a hat-trick as Ghani swings and misses on the first ball. But next ball brings a wicket as Afghanistan lose nine. Curran has four now. Fazalhaq Farooqi, right handed bat, comes to the crease. Curran clinches a five-for, gets Farooqi caught and Afghanistan have been bowled out for 112. Curran becomes the first Englishman to grab a T20I five-for!
AFG 112/8 in 19 overs vs ENG: Chris Woakes, bowling the 19th, takes a one-handed catch off his bowling to remove Mujeeb. Fareed Malik comes to the crease. DROPPED! Alex Hales at backward point drops a tough chance of Fareed! Three runs and a wicket.
AFG 109/7 in 18 overs vs ENG: Usman Ghani and new man Azmatullah Omarzai were showing signs of intent but Sam Curran, back for his third over, gets rid of Omarzai, who is caught by Stokes. Next ball, Curran targets new batter Rashid Khan with a bouncer. Rashid, who is hurried by it, can only pull it straight to the fine leg fielder. 3 runs and 2 wickets from the over. Curran will be on a hat-trick when he comes on for the 20th.
AFG 106/5 in 17 overs vs ENG: Here’s Adil Rashid. Nine runs from the over including a boundary for Usman Ghani. Rashid’s four go for 32. Afghanistan’s 100 has come up.
AFG 97/5 in 16 overs vs ENG: WICKET! England have been on fire in the field. Buttler dives full stretch, goalkeeper style, to his left and grabs a one-handed stunner. Wood has his second wicket and Nabi has to go. Azmatullah Omarzai, right handed bat, comes to the crease and gets off the mark with a four. Wood bowls out. High pace and accuracy were the highlights of his spell tonight. He consistently clicked 150-plus and rarely bowled a loose ball. Wood - 2 for 23 in 4 overs. Every ball Wood bowled today was above 140 kmph!
AFG 89/4 in 15 overs vs ENG: WICKET! Stokes has another wicket. Adil Rashid’s turn to put on a catching exhibition. The ball went high up in the air, Rashid kept his eyes on the ball and dived full stretch to finish the catch. Najib falls. Mohammad Nabi, right handed bat, comes to the crease. Meanwhile, Usman has pulled a short ball for four... the fielder was perhaps 20 yards inside, trying to cut the twos. Instead they concede a four. A brace to end the over. 7 from the over.
AFG 82/3 in 14 overs vs ENG: Usman and Najib are targetting the longer boundaries to convert the ones into twos. Good running between the wickets by these two so far. Mark Wood, who has returned into the attack for his third over, goes for just four. No sign of a second spinner still.
AFG 78/3 in 13 overs vs ENG: Adil Rashid into his third. Usman and Najib need to target a couple of bowlers if they want their team to put on a challenge. Najib shows signs of aggression as he smacks one straight down the ground for six. He targets the shorter boundary and succeeds. 13 from the over. Pretty decent for Afghanistan.
AFG 65/3 in 12 overs vs ENG: WICKET! Curran strikes. Ibrahim Zadran holes out to a fine catch by Moeen Ali. Curran gets the breakthrough with a cutter. Ibrahim goes for a run-a-ball 32. Najib Zadran is in next. Excellent over from Curran - three runs and a wicket.
AFG 62/2 in 11 overs vs ENG: Rashid continues after the break. Five singles and a couple from the over. Afghanistan needs a move on. England have a stranglehold on the game.
AFG 55/2 in 10 overs vs ENG: Change of ends for Stokes, who has bowled well tonight. Stokes bowls a slower ball but it’s pitched up as Ibrahim leans into the drive and collects four off the third ball. 8 from the over including a wide for height.
AFG 47/2 in 9 overs vs ENG: First sign of spin as leggie Adil Rashid comes into the attack. Five runs from the over. The Perth wicket may not offer much turn.
AFG 42/2 in 8 overs vs ENG: Sam Curran is brought into the attack. Curran concedes a boundary off the fifth ball. It was a good over up until that point. Curran bowled a slower ball but erred in line as Ghani worked one off this pads to fine leg for four. 5 from the over.
AFG 37/2 in 7 overs vs ENG: WICKET! Hazratullah Zazai is caught trying to up the ante. Credit to Livingstone, who dives full length in the deep to complete a fine take. Second brilliant take of the day, after Glenn Phillips’s grab against Australia earlier today. Usman Ghani, right handed bat, comes to the crease. Wicket and two singles from the over.
AFG 35/1 in 6 overs vs ENG: Woakes into his third over. Woakes is using change of pace to keep the batters guessing. Woakes finds the edge off the fourth ball but Ibrahim is lucky as the ball flies past a diving Buttler for four. 8 runs from the over including a wide.
AFG 27/1 in 5 overs vs ENG: Mark Wood continues. He is generating serious pace. 150 clicks. Good lines and lengths as well. Ibrahim uses the pace of the bowler, of the pitch and marries it with his timing to pull a short ball over fine leg for six. Some strike that. It went 77 metres. The ball was bowled at 148kmph. 7 from the over.
AFG 20/1 in 4 overs vs ENG: Woakes to bowl a second inside the PowerPlay. He starts with a slower ball, Zazai plays and misses. After four dot balls, Woakes loses his line and length - short and wide and Zazai cuts it away for four. Zazai ends the over with a single.
AFG 15/1 in 3 overs vs ENG: WICKET! Mark Wood is brought into the attack and strikes first ball! Gurbaz is caught behind, healthy edge through to the keeper. Ibrahim Zadran, right handed bat, comes to the crease. Buttler has two slips. Testing phase for Ibrahim, who is off the mark with a stylish drive for four. Boundary and a wicket from the over.
AFG 11/0 in 2 overs vs ENG: Chris Woakes comes on. Gurbaz on strike. Slip in place. Gurbaz goes across his stumps on the third ball, goes down on one knee and flicks Woakes over fine leg for six. Good over for Afghanistan. Nine coming off it.
AFG 2/0 in 1 over vs ENG: Zazai will take strike. The powerful left-hander will face Stokes. There’s a slip in place. Hint of swing for Stokes straightaway. Zazai has taken a single. Gurbaz is on strike. Stokes is getting good carry as well. Nice ploy from Buttler, opening the attack with Stokes. That allows Buttler to use Woakes a little later in the innings. Single for Gurbaz off the last ball.
The National Anthems are out of the way. Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz are making their way to the middle. Ben Stokes with the new ball.
TOSS UPDATE: Jos Buttler has won the toss and England will bowl first. We will bring up the Playing XIs for both sides shortly.
PLAYING 11
The focus now shifts to England vs Afghanistan. It seems like Chris Woakes might be fit to play.
RESULT: Australia have lost the opener against New Zealand. A convincing all-round performance from the Kiwis as the defending champion begin the home World Cup with a 89-run defeat. Tim Southee took 3 for 6 in just 2.1 overs! This is New Zealand’s first victory in Australia against the defending champion since 2011.
We are less than 10 minutes away from toss. Will England waltz to victory or will Afghanistan get their campaign off to a dream start with a win?
Afghanistan fans queuing up outside the Perth Stadium. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
While we await toss here, New Zealand are all over Australia in Sydney. Chasing 201, Australia are seven down for less than 100. Devon Conway starred with the bat for New Zealand with an unbeaten 92.
HOW TO STOP BUTTLER
Leg spin is Buttler’s kryptonite. It’s the only form of bowling against which he averages less than 30 in all T20s. So his face-off with Rashid Khan will be crucial. Buttler’s go-to shot against pace is the ramp and the scoop, so the pacers will be better off aiming for wide yorkers instead of bowling straight.
In the build-up to this game, English all-rounder Ben Stokes has criticised the “stupid” size of cricket’s boundary marking sponges after they caused Reece Topley’s injury which ruled him out of England’s T20 World Cup. Meanwhile, Jonathan Trott, the coach of Afghanistan, said: "There's been many a time that someone's stood on a rope and done their ankle, so it's not just the foam, the ropes have been there.
"Plenty of times guys have dived on to the rope and hurt themselves whereas if they dive onto the foam I think that's a little but actually safer. I think it's 50-50 really."
A recent T20 series win in Pakistan has boosted England’s hopes after a tough year in white-ball cricket. Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s 2022 Asia Cup campaign showed signs of promise when it beat eventual winner Sri Lanka and Bangladesh before a dramatic, one-wicket loss to Pakistan.
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