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England bowled out Afghanistan for 112 in their opening encounter of the T20 World Cup on Saturday, with Sam Curran taking his first five-wicket haul in Twenty20 internationals.
England skipper Jos Buttler, who is in his first worldwide event as white-ball captain, won the toss and chose to field first, and the seam bowlers combined with excellent catching did the work for the squad tipped as one of the tournament favourites.
Curran, a left-arm quick, bowled 5-10, the first England bowler to capture five wickets in T20s, to send Afghanistan packing in 19.4 overs and better his previous T20 record of 3-25.
Mark Wood struck with his first ball in the third over of the innings, catching Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who had hit a six the previous over, for ten runs.
Ibrahim Zadran responded with a six and two fours, but the England quicks held the scoring under control for the first six overs of the powerplay – when only two fielders are allowed beyond the inner circle.
Ben Stokes, who bowled the first over and got figures of 2-19, came back to dismiss Hazratullah Zazai, with Liam Livingstone collecting a superb running catch in the deep.
Curran claimed two wickets on successive balls, including Rashid Khan for a duck, to complete his hat-trick at the end of his third over.
Usman Ghani played out the hat-trick ball at the start of the 20th over, but was caught off the following ball as Curran cleaned off the tail.
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