Well, England escaped a scare. As Morgan said, they came here to win and they got the job done. Afghanistan have come close in the three games they have played so far, but lacked the finishing skills due to inexperience. They will look to end the tournament on a high when they take on West Indies. That's for another day though. There is another game coming up, it is India v Bangladesh. Switch tabs and catch all the build up from that game. The toss isn't far away as well. Goodbye from here.
Stanikzai: "110 was a par score. They played really well and the one over from Hamza made the difference. It was a good opportunity for us today. We lost wickets at the top and that didn't help our cause. The wicket was not difficult and the boys did not take responsibility."
Morgan: "We came today for a win and we won. It will help our confidence moving into Saturday's game. They played a good brand of cricket. We didn't really adapt to the surface. We will speak about it in the coming days. David Willey and Moeen Ali played really well and got us to a good score. We put pressure by picking early wickets. We were outstanding in the first six, Willey up front was brilliant and Plunkett as well. The spinners didn't come off as Afghanistan play spin really well. The bowlers took responsibility. Credit to them to the way they (Afghanistan) play. They are the strongest associate nation. The brand of cricket they play is not easy and I encourage them to keep playing the same way."
Moeen Ali: "We just wanted to give ourselves some time, take it to the last three overs and then have a hack towards the end. They bowled really well and it was difficult. I took some time and thankfully it came off. No matter who was coming on, both [him and Willey] of us decided to go in the 19th over. Today I bowled a little bit slow, little bit disappointed but got the crucial wicket. But the important thing is we got the job done."
Moeen Ali is the Man of the Match
England will have to thank Moeen Ali and David Willey for getting them out of a hole. The pair added a 50-plus stand for the 8th wicket with the former making the significant contribution. The latter broke Afghanistan's backbone when he sent back Shahzad in the very first over. The Asian side never looked good in their chase and missed out on a golden opportunity to cause an upset. There were some bizarre moves by the Afghanistan management in their batting order. Rashid Khan, who generally bats at No. 9 or 10, came out at No. 4, while Nabi and Shenwari were held back. If it was spin for Afghanistan, England relied on their pacers to do the job, the four of them collected 4 wickets between them.
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