England thrashed Afghanistan by nine wickets on Monday in their final warm-up match at The Oval on Monday ahead of the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
Chasing a below-par score of 161, England got off to a quickfire start as their openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow hammered Afghanistan for regular boundaries and these two batsmen enabled England to score 76 runs in opening seven overs.
Mohammad Nabi provided the first breakthrough to Afghanistan as Bairstow (39) was stumped in the eighth over.
Joe Root came out to bat at number three, and along with Roy, did not allow Afghanistan to come back in the match. Both these batsmen carried the momentum forward for England.
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The duo ensured that the team does not suffer from any more hiccups and they took England over the line by nine wickets with 195 balls to spare in the 18th over.
Roy and Root remained unbeaten on 89 and 29, respectively.
(Scorecard | Commentary | Squads | Schedule)
Toss: England have won the toss and have opted to field.
England lost to Australia in their first warm-up match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. It was an unexpected result considering how the Eoin Morgan-leg England have been destroying their opponents in the run-up to the mega event. It may well serve as a wake-up call for the favourites. Meanwhile, Afghanistan defeated neighbours Pakistan in their first warm-up match to state their intentions.
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Teams:
England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, James Vince, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Tom Curran, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Mark Wood, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan
Afghanistan (From): Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Samiullah Shinwari, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib (c), Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ali Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan
