ENG VS AFG - 14th Match, Super 12 Group 1, ICC Mens T20 World Cup 2022

New Zealand humbled the World Champions at the SCG earlier today. England, here in Perth, were a bit rusty with the bat but it was a clinical performance from their bowlers and fielders. Both teams will travel to Melbourne next. While England take on Ireland, Nabi's men will have to lock horns against the in-form Kiwis. Hope you enjoyed our coverage today. Until tomorrow's double-header - the clash between two teams that progressed from the first round followed by the blockbuster encounter - it's goodbye from all of us down here..

Jos Buttler: Coming into the tournament, there's always a few nerves. We've been playing a lot of cricket to buld up to this point. There's a lot of anticipation. To get out there and get a win under our belt is fantastic. Fielding is a huge part of this game. It was a fantastic effort in the field. Mark Wood is always fun to keep wicket to, he's someone who can create catches like that, delighted to hang on to that. He's very vital. He's been backing up games and has been a great asset. He's in a good place and we'll try to look after him. (Curran at the death) I think he's got great character for that role. He's thriving with the extra responsibility. He enjoys the tough moments. He demands the ball in those situations which is a great attitude to have. The most pleasing thing about Sam is he always wants to bowl. Felt like the ball swung early, Afghanistan have a talented bowling attack, we were challenged and we had to pay respect to the bowlers. It could have been more fluent but I thought Afghanistan bowled well.

Mohammad Nabi: It was not a good start to the tournament, but we tried our best to play good cricket. Everyone knows England are one of the best T20 teams. The pitch was more suitable for England. We didn't put a good total on the board. They took 2-3 good catches. We thought 140-150 would be a good total to fight but we couldn't get there. This is our plan, if we put a good total, we have quality spinners. Me, Rash and Mujeeb have the experience of playing in the BBL. We'll look to learn from our mistakes and improve.

Sam Curran | Player of the Match: We saw the way the Afghanistan team made it quite tricky, we knew they had world-class spinners in the middle there. Nice to get the first win. Every team can beat anyone. Hopefully we take today's confidence into Wednesday's game and then the big one against Australia on Friday. Hopefully we can play with confidence. No better preparation than playing that many games. To come here and start with a win is obviously great. It'll be another tricky game against Ireland. I try to be as adaptable as possible (with the ball). I'm trying to get better at different phases and keep contributing. Really enjoying my cricket at the moment.

22:09 Local Time, 14:09 GMT, 19:39 IST: England begin their World Cup campaign with a win. They would have ideally wanted to chase this down much earlier though. After opting to field, they were outstanding in the first half of the match. Buttler employed just five bowlers and the four pacers accounted for all the ten wickets which also included an impressive fifer from Sam Curran. The catching was unbelievably good from England and Afghanistan were bundled out for 113. In reply, England surprisingly didn't come out all guns blazing. Captain Buttler fell inside the powerplay after hitting three boundaries. Hales was dropped twice but he couldn't capitalize. The Afghanistan bowlers squeezed the flow of runs in the middle overs as their spinners hardly offered any freebies. Dawid Malan batted 30 deliveries for his 18 but didn't hit a single boundary. The troika of spinners picked one wicket apiece but the fielding was sloppy from Afghanistan as they dropped a couple of chances in addition to the plenty of misfields. Livingstone batted calmly - not a word that's usually used to describe him - to take his team over the line with 11 balls to spare. Afghanistan fought hard but their batsmen let them down. Stick around for the presentations...

Azmatullah to Moeen Ali, wide, short delivery, Moeen Ali sways away from it and that's been wided for height. England win by 5 wickets!

Azmatullah to Livingstone, 1 run, waltzes down the pitch does Livingstone and goes hard on the pull. Deep square leg comes forward and takes it on the bounce

Azmatullah Omarzai [1.0-0-9-0] is back into the attack

Nabi to Moeen Ali, 2 runs, full ball, swung away through square leg for a couple of runs

Nabi to Moeen Ali, no run, in-dart, patted to cover from the crease

Nabi to Moeen Ali, no run, sliding in on leg and Moeen Ali is late to close his bat-face. The ball rolls to mid-wicket off his pad. Livingstone wants a single, gets sent back

Nabi to Moeen Ali, 2 runs, scythed to deep cover

Nabi to Livingstone, 1 run, Livingstone rocks back to cut and inside-edges to square leg

Nabi to Livingstone, 2 runs, skips down the track and punches uppishly, falls short and wide of cover who misfields and allows the batters to take two

Mohammad Nabi [2.0-0-9-1] is back into the attack

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Moeen Ali, no run, a pacy bumper to end the over that bounces over Moeen Ali's right shoulder

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Livingstone, 1 run, very full delivery, flicked to deep mid-wicket

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Livingstone, no run, back of a length, guided to backward point with an opened bat-face

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Moeen Ali, 1 run, dug in short, swivel-pulled to deep square leg

Fazalhaq Farooqi to Livingstone, 1 run, slower ball, blunted towards square leg off the inside edge