- Group 1, Perth: England (113-5) beat Afghanistan (112) by 5wkts
- Curran takes 5 for 10 and Livingstone hits 29no in victory
A night when England caused terror with the ball and made errors with the bat most importantly ended with victory over Afghanistan, and a successful start to their T20 World Cup campaign. Mark Wood’s average speed was the fastest in the history of the tournament but their scoring was much more pedestrian as they trudged to a winning total of 113 with 11 balls and five wickets remaining.
Sam Curran became the first English player to take a five-for in a T20 international as he shredded Afghanistan’s lower order towards the end of their innings, taking four wickets for no runs in six balls across two overs to end with the fantasy figures of five wickets for 10 runs. Far from finding the accelerator in their final few overs the Afghans instead located the self-destruct button, slumping from 106 for five with three overs left to 112 all out with two balls unused.
