The 15-run victory margin suggests that the
England-Afghanistan match was a close contest. But in reality, England
managed to keep the young cricketing nation at bay and won with a fair
amount of comfort.
England captain Eoin Morgan was
pleased with the team’s victory, pleased with the side ability to bat
deep and never doubted the outcome could be any different. “The Moeen
Ali-David Willey partnership was very important. The difference of
chasing 120 and 140 is huge. One of our strengths is we bat right down
the order. I thought he (Moeen) batted really well. With Afghanistan
playing four spinners and only one seamer, they would run the risk of
having to bowl the last few overs with the off-spinner. So it was a risk
that you do take.”
Morgan maintained that at no
stage he had any fear of England losing. “Before the game, we knew a lot
about Afghanistan. They are a good side and certainly if they are going
to beat us, we need to under-perform. We let them in today by
under-performing with the bat but I thought our bowling was outstanding.
In the field as well, we are pretty good, which is a good sign.”
Praising
Afghanistan’s cricket, Morgan said, “They certainly didn’t surprise
with anything that they have done before. They continue to play in the
right way to try and improve their cricket. I said before they are
probably the best associate nation at the moment. And I think that’s a
huge honour. If they continue playing in that fashion, they would
improve their cricket a lot more quickly.”
On this
day, the Afghanistan camp felt Moeen Ali’s innings made the difference.
In the words of leg-spinner Rashid Khan, “When England lost seven
wickets for 57, we thought it was time for us to beat them as they were
beaten by the other side (the Netherlands and Ireland). But in the end,
Moeen Ali played a good innings. He took his team to 140 and that took
away the game from us.”
Looking at the positives from
the contest, Rashid said, “It was a good game. We were just going to
play good cricket. In the start, the spinners did a good job. They took
all the wickets so it helped us restrict England to 142.
On
the role of Afghanistan spinners, he said, “We know these wickets are
suitable for spinners. They did their job taking wickets early. So we
planned to restrict them to 60 or 70. We thought we had this game 100
per cent, you know. This time, it was a closer game. So hopefully we
learn from it and in the future, we will not repeat the same mistakes.”
