Match report: Wright sends Afghanistan home

Source: cricinfo.com

• England 196/5 (Wright 99*, Hales 31) defeated Afghanistan 80 (Naib 44, Patel 2/6)

Summary:

English all-rounder Luke Wright fell agonisingly short of a maiden T20 century as England made Afghanistan the second team eliminated in the T20 World Cup. After Afghanistan made a great start to have England 0/1 after the first over, Wright came in at no.3 and batted through the innings to set an almost impossible target for the inexperienced Afghanis. The English bowlers then set about systematically destroying the Afghan batting line-up, reducing them to 26/8 before some lusty hitting by lower order batsman Gulbodin Naib ensured that the crowd at least got their money's worth.

The perfect game:

If you asked England captain Stuart Broad, or any captain for that matter, what the perfect game would look like it would be this. A top order batsman batting through the innings, with the other players feeding him the strike or hitting out themselves. Then the bowlers not taking the foot off the throat of the opposition batsmen for the entire 20 overs.

Who's hot:

England: Wright belied his modest T20 average of 18 to record the second best score of the tournament. The English bowling attack dismantled Afghanistan in a team effort, with no bowler taking more than two wickets.

Afghanistan: Pace bowler Shapoor Zadran start the match in a blaze of glory with a wicket maiden, while Naib bettered his highest score in T20 cricket by 27 runs. 

What it means:

England: Tuned up for the clash with heavyweights India. Will go in with confidence and optimism following India's less than impressive showing against the same opposition.

Afghanistan: Disappointing but rather predictable end for Afghanistan who showed much promise against local rivals India but couldn't back it up. It's the lemonade and sars for Afghanistan in 2012.

The Votes:

MVP: 3- L Wright, 2- S Patel (2/6, pretty tidy figures), 1- S Broad (2/10 with a maiden).

Tucker Trophy: 1- Shaifqullah (finished the tournament with a grand total of 9 runs), 2- M Nabi (46 conceded with the ball, 1 scored with the bat), 3- I Dawlatzai (dropped a catch and went for an eye watering 18.66 runs an over).