Curran is keen to bowl over Aussies
SAM CURRAN yesterday became the first England bowler to take five wickets in a men’s Twenty20 international, and then set his sights on ruining Australia’s party.
Curran took five wickets for 10 runs, excelling at the death, as Afghanistan were bowled out for 112 in a near perfect England performance in the field. Then, after England had made slightly hard work of their T20 World Cup opener, reaching their target with 11 balls and five wickets to spare, the left-armer looked ahead to facing an Australian side who had earlier crashed to a heavy defeat in their group game against New Zealand.
England must first face Ireland in Melbourne on Wednesday, but
Curran said: ‘There’s no hiding that Friday will be a pretty epic game against Australia.
‘Hopefully we can go into that game having won on Wednesday. If we then win again against Australia, it would be great for us and might leave the Aussies in a tricky position.’
Curran was on a hat-trick against Afghanistan and then took two wickets in the final over as five wickets fell for just three runs in 11 balls.
‘Any time you take on a tough situation that’s when you want to be involved and you have to be as adaptable as possible,’ Curran said.
‘It’s my first World Cup game and the energy when I woke up this morning gave me an extra buzz.
‘I’m enjoying the pace and bounce in Australia and using the dimensions of the grounds.’
Afghanistan are coached by former England batsman Jonathan Trott, who was disappointed his side could not get closer to an upset. ‘We were in a decent position but in our last four overs we were 16-5 and the England bowlers were very good in Australian conditions,’ he said.