England crush Afghanistan
Luke Wright's unbeaten 99 got England's defence of their ICC World Twenty20 crown off to a perfect start in a record 116-run trouncing of Afghanistan at the Premadasa Stadium on Friday.
Wright crunched eight fours and six sixes from only 55 balls, and became the second Englishman this year to miss out on his country's first Twenty20 century by just a single run.
He powered England to 196 for five, overwhelming any prospect of a successful Afghanistan chase as the minnows folded to 80 all out in reply.
Afghanistan started off impressively with a maiden-wicket over from Shapoor Zadran who put England on the back-foot after claiming their opener Craig Kieswetter for a duck.
But Adam Hales and Luke Wright put England back on track with a useful second-wicket partnership of 69 runs.
Hales was run out for 31 but Wright continued to clobber the bowlers as he raced to an unbeaten 99. He added 72 runs for the third wicket with Eoin Morgan who made 27 in 23 balls.
Izatullah Dawlatzai claimed two wickets despite being the most expensive bowler for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan crashed earlier on in their run chase and were in deep trouble after losing eight of their batsmen for 26 but a fighting knock of 44 off 32 balls from Gulbodin Naib helped them recover before being bundled out for 80.
Samit Patel, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach and Graeme Swann claimed two wickets each.
It was down only to number eight Naib's brisk intervention that they bettered by 13 runs the lowest-ever score by any international team in this sprint format.
England are therefore assured of a place in the Super Eight stages, irrespective of how they fare back on Sunday against India - who have also qualified after their own opening Group A victory over Afghanistan.
SCORES IN BRIEF
ENGLAND: 196 for 5 in 20 overs (Wright 99 n.o, Hales 31, Morgan 27; Dawlatzai 2/56) beat
AFGHANISTAN: 80 all out in 17.2 overs (Naib 44; Patel 2/6, Stuart Broad 2/10, Jade Dernbach 2/16, Graeme Swann 2/22)
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