After surviving Afghan's scare, England captain Eoin Morgan was all but smiling in the post-match press conference. Afghanistan spinners gave England a nightmare when the Brits were left reeling at 57/6, but all thanks to Moeen Ali's cameo in the end guided the team to a competitive score of 142, which gave England bowlers the chance to seal the win in a crucial Super 10 fixture. Jatin Verma reports from ground zero
What have you learned from Wednesday’s matchIJ
Firstly, I have learned about the wicket. Coming here and playing the T20 World Cup, I think this was the type of wicket every single one of us was expecting. We had spoken a lot about the pitch and the execution of our play was long off from the way. In the meantime, now me and the boys have to sit down and need to strategise on the right plan ahead of our next game against Sri lanka we.
Importance of Moeen Ali's innings towards the end and Wiley's bowling performanceIJ
Moeen's importance was crucial and if it was not for him, we would have never reached 142. He played according to the situation and read the deliveries well. We needed wickets up front and Wiley provided us with the same. He bowled wicket to wicket and delivered the goods for the team. We needed to set a decent score on the board and targeted 120-125. But the 18th and the 19th over helped us a long way. The Moeen-David partnership was very important because chasing 120 and 140 are very different.
What do you make about your dismissalIJ
Well there is nothing to say much about that, isn't itIJ No, it was simple error in judgement but credit to Mohammad Nabi for bowling that delivery. It was a fantastic one.
At 57/6, was the defeat against the Netherlands in the last edition of World T20 played in your mind and your teammatesIJ
Well no there was no fear factor in my mind. I believed in my batting line-up and the boys kept my faith in them. We had seen their qualifying games and we learned a lot about them. We knew it was an important game for and that we had to beat them.
Concerned about team's batting performanceIJ
No. Not at all. Our strength is that we bat deep. No concern about our batting. It was a matter of adapting to the wicket. We have been practicing it but couldn't execute it today. We learnt a lot about the wicket. It will help us against Sri lanka in our next match.