The World Twenty20 continued to conform to expectation - disappointingly
so, some will say - as England began the defence of their title with a
116-run hammering of Afghanistan. Luke Wright
could not quite follow Brendon McCullum's hundred earlier in the day,
but produced a blistering 99 off 55 balls after the holders overcame a
slightly tricky start in highly convincing fashion.
Wright became the second England batsman to be stranded one short of a
Twenty20 hundred following Alex Hales' innings against West Indies
earlier this year. Wright only returned to the line-up at the tail-end
of the English season and had not really been earmarked for the No. 3
role until Ravi Bopara's rapid loss of form but, having made a brace of
useful 30s in the warm-ups, provided further evidence of his development
over the last year. He powered past his previous best of 71 against
Netherlands, at Lord's, during the 2009 World Twenty20. England,
famously, lost that match but there was never a risk of a repeat.
Unsurprisingly, Afghanistan came out swinging with predictable results.
Mohammad Shahzad picked out mid-off, Shafiqullah skied to cover and the
captain Nawroz Mangal was brilliantly held by Stuart Broad off his own
bowling. Much has rightly been written and said about the fairytale of
Afghanistan's rise, but this was a harsh of reality check as they slid
to 26 for 8. However, they avoided the heaviest defeat in T20 which is
Kenya's 172-run defeat against Sri Lanka in 2007 and Gulbodin Naib, with
a gutsy display, ensured they passed Kenya's lowest T20 total of 67.
England, though, did exactly what they needed to. Wright was chiefly
responsible for some fierce acceleration as they scored 124 off the
second 10 overs of their innings after a slow start against some lively
new-ball bowling. He started the final over on 95 and needed three off
the last ball to make England's first T20 hundred but could only club a
brace through midwicket.
He received solid support from Hales and Eoin Morgan while Jos Buttler
and Jonny Bairstow contributed rapid cameos. There were some costly
overs during the innings, most notably 32 off the penultimate from
Izatullah Dawlatzai which included two no-balls - the same figure that
Wayne Parnell went for at Edgbaston earlier in the month putting it
joint second in T20 records. It was also another poor fielding display
from Afghanistan - Wright was dropped on 75 - as basic skills let them
down as they did against India.
0 comments:
Post a Comment