Ali stars in England's recovery from 57/6 to win second consecutive match
It was Deja Vu for the audience at Feroz Shah Kotla on Wednesday as England and Afghanistan were identical in the way they started their innings. After ten overs Afghanistan found themselves struggling at 60/6, the same as England at that point in the match.
But the eventual difference lied in Moeen Ali's unbeaten knock of 41 along with a 57-run partnership between him and Chris Jordan for the eighth wicket, proving crucial for the Poms.
Despite being knocked out of the WorldT20, Afghanistan showed great fighting spirit in chasing 143, but it was too much to ask from a team after the top-order collapsed so badly.
Afghanistan came close to the target, but England always had the upper hand courtesy of their disciplined bowling line-up.
Afghanistan's in-form opener Mohammad Shehzad was not able to reciprocate his performance from the qualifying matches and was out for just four runs when David Wiley trapped him leg before the wicket in the first over itself giving Afghanistan team and fans a minor heart attack.
England's new-ball partners David Willey (2/23) and Chris Jordan (1/27) swung the ball intelligently to reduce the Afghans to 13/3. They limped to 50 in the 11th over, losing half their side in the process and were in desperate need of an innings like Moeen Ali's. But, sadly, no one rose to the task, though Shafiqullah (35) did bring them close but it wasn't enough as they eventually lost by 15 runs to England.
Earlier, England exhibited aggression after winning the toss and taking first strike. But skipper Eoin Morgan's decision proved to backfire as opener Jason Roy (5) danced down the track to be castled by left-arm spinner Amir Hamza.
That brought the in-form man Joe Root in and he began to build a decent partnership with James Vince. But a collapse in the last three balls of the sixth over pushed them on the backfoot. Vince (22) succumbed to the charms of off-spinner Mohammad Nabi, offering a simple caught and bowled opportunity.
Morgan (0) followed Vince back in the very next ball, shouldering arms to a bowl that came in. The slump turned into a crisis (12) when Root departed after an ugly mix-up with Ben Stokes to reduce the Englishmen from 41/1 to 42/4. They reached 50 in the eight over but never quite recovered from the shock and lost two more wickets soon. The relatively grassy pitch didn't have any voodoo but England was simply not able to apply themselves.
Jos Butler's (6) strong drive was superbly caught by a pumped-up Nabi, diving at extra cover. Stokes (7) inside-edged a quicker flat-trajectoried delivery onto his stumps and in the process landed on his bum, summing up England's poor effort with the bat. At 85/7 in 14.3 overs, the picture looked bleak; Ali (41 not out) gave England a fighting total, pulling them past the 100-run mark in the 18th over, launching into some big shots in the penultimate over, scoring 25 off it.
He and fellow left-hander Willey (20 not out) stitched a 57-run stand in 5.3 overs, plundering 55 of the last 30 deliveries to give England a fighting chance.
Brief scores
England: 142/7 (Moeen Ali 41, Vince 22; Nabi 2/17, Rashid 2/17) beat Afg: 127/9 (Shafiqullah 35, Shinwari 22; Willey 2/23, Rashid 2/18) by 15 runs.