Some late fight from the tail-end has given England hope of saving their World Twenty20 hopes after a disastrous showing from the top batsmen in today's Super 10 group match against minnows Afghanistan.
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Eoin Morgan's side came into today's match having pulled off the biggest run chase in World T20 history last time out against South Africa after going down to the West Indies in their tournament opener.
Morgan won the toss and chose to bat on what he deemed a friendly surface at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, a ground hosting its first-ever international T20 contest.
Afghanistan's spin attack was what hurt England and first to go was Jason Roy for five, bowled by Amir Hamza.
James Vince, standing in for the injured Alex Hales, then put on a quickfire 26 for the second wicket with Joe Root as England began to pile on the runs.
However, their momentum was dramatically halted in the sixth over when three wickets fell in four balls.
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First Vince (22) chipped one straight back to Mohammad Nabi before Morgan bizarrely left a straight ball that clattered into the stumps for a golden duck.
Nabi missed out on a hat-trick with the next ball, but he was soon celebrating again as he ran out England's star-man Joe Root (12) after a mix-up with Ben Stokes.
That left dangerous duo Stokes and Jos Buttler at the crease, but both were soon gone as first Buttler (6) was snagged at cover by Samiullah Shenwari's diving catch before a Rashid Khan delivery kept low and got rid of Stokes (7).
That left England 57-6 in the 10th over and it looked as if they would struggle to post three figures until some fight was shown by the tail-end.
Moeen Ali led the charge with an unbeaten 41 off 33 balls, with contributions also from Chris Jordan (15) and David Willey (20*) as England set Afghanistan a victory target of 143.
Pascal Lemesre
