England made a good start in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup beating Afghanistan by five wickets in a Group A Super 12 match at the Perth Stadium in Australia on Saturday.
Chasing an easy target, England faced no trouble to score match winning 113 runs for the loss of five wickets in 18.1 overs.
Number five Liam Livingstone contributed the team highest 21-ball 29 runs featuring three boundaries, opener Alex Hales (19), another opener Jos Buttler (18), one down Dawid Malam (18) were the main contributors for the England reaching the double figures, according to UNB.
Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeebur Rahman, Fareed Ahmed and Fazalhaq Farooqi took one wicket each conceding 16, 17, 22, 23 and 24 runs respectively,
Earlier sent into bat first, Afghanistan were dismissed cheaply for 112 runs against England
Afghanistan made a good start scoring 82 runs for 4 in 11.1 overs, but they were miserably bundled out for a poor total, losing remaining six wickets for just 30 runs in 8.5 overs against devastating bowling by Sam Curren.
After the dismissal two openers---Hazratullah Zazai (7) and Rahmatullah Gurbaz (10) --for 35 runs in 6.3 overs, one down Ibrahim Zardan pairing number four Usman Ghani repaired their early damage scoring 27 runs in the 3rd wicket stand.
Ibrahim Zardan scored the team highest run a ball 32 featuring three fours and a six while Usman Ghani contributed run a ball 30 hitting three boundaries.
Najibullah Zardan was the other notable Afghan batter reaching the double figure scoring 11-ball 13 runs with one six.
24-year old left arm medium fast bowler Samuel Matthew Curren grabbed five Afghan wickets conceding just 10 runs in his 3.4 overs spell and was adjudged the player of the match.
Experienced right arm fast medium bowler Ben Stokes and right arm fast bowler Mark Wood took two wickets each conceding 19 and 23 runs respectively, in their four-over bowling.
In their next matches, England will play Ireland while Afghanistan will face New Zealand both on October 26 in Melbourne.
