Afghanistan vs England is now over with England winning reasonably comfortably, but probably not as comfortably as they’d have liked. Still, a win’s a win and it’s more than Australia managed today.
England had injury worries around Chris Woakes (quadricep) and Mark Wood (not actually injured at this point, but it's usually only a matter of time), but both are playing today. Mulleted man mountain Reece Topley has already been ruled out because he, er, fell over the boundary rope. Okay.
With two such forceful sides facing off, there's a chance things could be fiery out there. However, alas, there is also a pretty strong chance things could be rainy – the forecast is a little grim, but then again the forecast has been adverse throughout this World Cup so far, but very little actual match time has been lost to showers. Fingers crossed, then.
England won the toss and opted to bowl first. Australia just got absolutely walloped by New Zealand after making the same call! The England batting lineup looks very strong indeed. There are only four specialist bowlers picked. However, it should be pretty easy to get 4 quality overs – at least – out of England’s all-rounder contingent of Stokes, Livingstone and Moeen. Here’s the full lineup.
1 Jos Buttler, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood
In fact, Stokes opened the bowling. Afghanistan batted at ever such a leisurely pace, ekeing out 11, on a perfectly good pitch. Mark Wood looked the exact opposite of leisurely, snorting the ball through at nostril height and taking a wicket with his first ball of the World Cup, then another in his final over, to finish with 2/23. Sam Curran was less dramatic but even more effective, picking up a sensational 5/10 – the first ever five-wicket haul by an Englishman. They had great support from Stokes (2/19 in his four), Woakes (1/24), and Rashid (0/32).
Chasing such a low target, you might expect England to come out and blatt it all over Perth, but they’ve opted for steady accumulation. It‘s getting increasingly difficult to tell if the pitch is more troublesome than it looks, or if both these sides are bowling exceptionally well and/or batting exceptionally poorly. England were 95/4 after 15 overs. Afghanistan have dropped a couple of pretty good chances that they may end kicking themselves over.
So, here's how to watch England vs Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup in the UK, Australia, NZ, South Asia, the USA and elsewhere. There are various live stream options and if you're out of the country and can't access your preferred domestic broadcaster, you can use a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions (opens in new tab). Scroll down to the bottom of this guide for more info on this. We also have a regularly updated guide to how to watch the cricket T20 World Cup including free options, on a live stream. It's got the same info as this, but not as specific to ENG vs AFG.
When is England vs Afghanistan in the T20 cricket World Cup?
We're happy to help. Australia vs New Zealand starts on Saturday October 22 at 6pm AEST, 8am BST, midday PKT, 12:30pm IST, 7pm NZST, 3am ET and midnight PT.
Afghanistan vs England starts on Saturday October 22 at 10pm AEST, midday BST, 4pm PKT, 4:30pm IST, 11pm NZST, 7am ET and 4am PT.
All this is subject to rain, of which there may be rather a lot. Tragically, much of Australia currently resembles Atlantis and while we've been lucky with the weather so far in the T20 cricket, our luck can't last forever.
Can you stream the T20 World Cup for FREE?
Yes you can! If you live in Pakistan, or indeed, outside of Pakistan and don't mind the commentary being in Urdu, a number of games are free to watch on state broadcaster PTV Sports (opens in new tab). Hooray for public service broadcasting!
Australia's games, plus the semis and final, are free on Channel 9 in Australia, including via its 9Now (opens in new tab) streaming service. Here, the commentary will be more or less in English. Alternatively, you can watch every World Cup game for free for 14 days, with a free trial of Kayo Sports. Unfortunately, the World Cup goes on for longer than 14 days, but you can't have everything for free in life.
How to watch England vs Afghanistan T20 cricket in the UK
(opens in new tab)How to watch England vs Afghanistan T20 cricket in India – or in Hindi, from abroad
(opens in new tab)How to watch England vs Afghanistan T20 cricket in Pakistan – for free!
(opens in new tab)How to watch England vs Afghanistan T20 cricket in Australia – including free trial options
(opens in new tab)How to watch England vs Afghanistan T20 cricket in New Zealand
(opens in new tab)How to watch England vs Afghanistan T20 cricket in the USA
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How to watch England vs Afghanistan T20 cricket if you're abroad
If you're out of the country on holiday or business, you can still get access to a live stream - simply use the best VPN around to get past those geo-restrictions. A streaming VPN is a very handy thing, as it means you can hop on a server within the US, UK or anywhere else and it will switch your IP address to make it appear as if you're browsing right from the comfort of your own home.
(opens in new tab)- VPN - standing for virtual private network - offers security and anonymity as you browse online, using set protocols to encrypt your data and make it unreadable to outsiders.
- As a part of that, you can also switch your IP address, which identifies your location.
- Most VPNs offer a list of locations where its servers are based to join. Connecting to them switches your IP to appear as if you're browsing from that country/city. In turn, you can then access content locked to that country.
- When it comes to finding a VPN, you should make sure you find the best one that's suitable for your chosen device, with VPN providers offering compatibility for a ton of devices, including VPN for Mac, and even a range of fairly nifty free VPNs.
- Once you've made the decision for the most suitable VPN for your device and your means for using a VPN, sign-up and install it.
- To live stream Wimbledon 2022, all you need to do is select a UK server from its list of available servers and connect. You'll then be able to hop over those geo-restrictions, with the likes of BBC iPlayer opening its online gates to you.
- We also want to ensure your money is well spent, so we would recommend going for a VPN that offers a risk free trial. ExpressVPN is one of many providers that has a 30-day money back guarantee (opens in new tab).
- New to VPN? Find out how to use a VPN to unblock geo-restrictions
