Afghanistan vs England, 38th Match, Pool A - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Date & Time: Mar 13, 02:30 PM LOCAL

England won the toss and elected to bowl first in overcast conditions. They made 2 changes to their side that played B'desh, with Ravi Bopara and James Tredwell coming in for the injured duo of Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali. That means Alex Hales gets to open. Yay! I mean... About time.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, bring in Shafuqullah Shafaq and Nasir Jamal for Asghar Stanikzai and Usman Ghani.

Here are the captain's comments:

Morgan: 'Couple of days after that Bangladesh game, we got together and talked. We want to win this game. We are going to bowl. Rained a bit this morning and it's overcast. Woakes and Ali are out, Tredwell and Bopara come in. A performance will be nice, but we want to win.'

Nabi: 'We have enjoyed the whole tournament so far. We would have bowled as well. It rained a little in the morning. First few overs it will swing. We haven't performed with the bat. We want to finish the tournament in a good manner.'

It might be a game that's a dead rubber on paper, but for England and Afghanistan the game would be largely significant. England and Afghanistan are both out of the reckoning for a spot in the quarterfinals, with both teams taking up positions five and six in Pool A. Both teams have won once, against lowly Scotland. While Afghanistan's one-wicket defeat of Scotland was the latest chapter in a remarkable rise that has taken them from the lowest rung of international cricket to the game's showpiece tournament in barely seven years, for England victory over their neighbours couldn't salvage another wretched World Cup.Both team will be looking at this game to end their campaigns on a winning note.

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Story of the match ©Reuters

With rain continuing to pelt down, news filtering in is that the Afghanistan innings has now been declared finished. So they have 111, and England should get a revised target, off probably 20 overs.

England were set a target of 101 off 25 overs. Should not be much of a problem for Morgan's side, but you can't be too sure with England.

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Morgan's side claim second WC 2015 win by defeating Afghanistan by 9 wickets.

Summary:

England won the toss and sent Afghanistan in to bat in overcast conditions. Afghanistan's openers started off cautiously as they kept out the English bowlers for the first six overs. However, Anderson took the wicket of Mangal when the team score was 17 and started a mini-collapse for the Afghans. By the time they doubled their total, Afghanistan had already lost 3 more wickets in that period and were reeling at 34/4. Meanwhile, rain kept playing hide and seek in Sydney as play had to be stopped thrice during Afghanistan's innings. After the second delay, the match was reduced to 45 overs and by the time rain came down for the third time, Afghanistan were 111/7 after 36.2 overs. That was the last of what we saw of the Afghan batsmen in this World Cup. Play only got underway after a lengthy delay and England were given a target of 101 off 25 overs.

Afghanistan's fielding was extremely disappointing and it cost them Hales' wicket twice. In addition to that, they gave away way too many runs in the field. Their fielding was very poor as they let a number of balls slip away to the fence. Hales' luck finally gave up after he made a quickfire 37 off just 33 balls as he ended up edging one of Hamid Hassan's delivery to the keeper. That was the only casualty England suffered and with Taylor and Bell, who completed his fifty too, they finally achieved the target in the 19th over.England should have lost Hales in the first over, but luckily for them, he was dropped on 0 by Najibullah at backward point. The English batsmen made their intent clear when Bell lofted Shapoor through extra cover in the first over itself. Hales then tonked Dawlat for a magnificent six in the very next over. In the 5th over, Hales provided another chance to the Afghans, an action replay of the first dropped chance, but Najibullah floored it once more. After that both of them were knocking the ball around, picking up singles and dispatching the poor ones to the fence.

England went on to wrap the game in the 19th over.