“AFG vs ENG is so boring”- Twitter reacts as Afghanistan spinners almost turns the table but they hadn’t enough runs to defend against English batters
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England beat Afghanistan. Source: Twitter
Englishmen must have found the target of 113 rather easy to defend. However, Afghanistan have a world-class spinner and they can stun any top cricketing country. But in today’s match on Saturday [October 22], they failed to defend their small target and England ended up winning their opener by five wickets at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Winning the toss, English skipper Jos Buttler chose to bowl first. Sam Curran’s heroics of a five-wicket haul restricted the Afghans to just 112. Curran also created history by becoming the first Englishman to scalp five wickets in T20Is.
During England’s chase, the openers Buttler and Alex Hales did give a quick start to their innings until Fazalhaq Farooqi gave the first breakthrough by dismissing Buttler. Farooqi got the skipper, who mistimed a flick shot, at a deep square leg Mujeeb Ur Rahman ran toward the boundary rope to catch it. Buttler departed after scoring 18 runs off 18 balls (with three fours).
Hales was the next to walk back after a slow knock of 19 runs off 20 balls (with a six). Fareed Ahmad was the bowler to dismiss him. In the ninth over, Hales hit a high pull shot, but Farooqi ran and grabbed the catch.
Ben Stokes was poorly scored in this match. He played four balls to score two runs before Mohammad Nabi bowled him out. Rahman then sent the dangerous Dawid Malan who had played a rather very slow knock of 18 runs from 30 balls without big hits. It looked as if Afghanistan had got hold of the momentum.
In the 14th over, Rahman bowled a short one wide off, Malan smacked hard but it was flat. Afghan skipper Nabi fully dived and pouched the catch safely into his hands. Afghanistan knew the value of this wicket and couldn’t stop celebrating.
After Harry Brook’s wicket, Afghanistan sent half of the Englishmen back to the dressing room. Brook could only contribute seven runs before the spin wizard Rashid Khan trapped him in the 16th over.
Only Liam Livingstone scored an unbeaten 29 runs off 21 balls with three fours at a strike rate of 138.09. He and Moeen Ali then took England to a five-wicket victory.
Check how Twitter reacted to England’s win and Afghanistan’s defeat
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Gouri Das
(4695 Articles Published)