Sam curran

A night when England caused terror with the ball and made errors with the bat most importantly ended with victory over Afghanistan, and a successful start to their Sam Curran became the first English player to take a five-for in a T20 international as he shredded Afghanistan’s lower order towards the end of their innings, taking four wickets for no runs in six balls across two overs to end with the fantasy figures of five wickets for 10 runs. Far from finding the accelerator in their final few overs the Afghans instead located the self-destruct button, slumping from 106 for five with three overs left to 112 all out with two balls unused. Read more “Any time you’re taking on those tough situations, that’s when you want to be involved,” Curran said. “There will be some days when it doesn’t come off but hopefully I can keep gaining confidence and all the other bowlers around me can take confidence from that performance. It was my first World Cup game and the energy when I woke up, to know you’re going to be playing in a World Cup, gives you that extra buzz.” After they so successfully restricted Afghanistan’s scoring the question was whether England’s response would be full-bore or just bore and, while they never appeared in any real danger of defeat, they erred towards option two, not exactly the fireworks the audience of 8,405, and 51,595 empty seats, in Perth’s magnificent stadium had expected. Neither opener managed more than a run a ball, Dawid Malan scored 30 off 18 and...

On an April evening in 2019 at the Wankhede Stadium, Kieron Pollard was on the rampage. Every time Sam Curran, then just 20, ran in to bowl, one could almost sense the next six coming. Six of Pollard’s 10 sixes were hit off Curran’s left-arm medium-pace, which cost 54 runs in four overs. It was Curran’s maiden Indian Premier League season for then Kings XI Punjab and though he tried hard, he just didn’t have the pace and variations to escape punishment on a small ground. Three years later in the T20 World Cup, he became England’s go-to death bowler, conceding a mere 41 runs from 53 deliveries in the last-four-over stage, excluding the India game. In must-win games against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, Curran bowled two miserly overs each at the death, taking the crucial wicket of Glenn Phillips and giving away a solitary boundary across those four overs, that too an inside edge from Wanindu Hasaranga. So well has he made the transition from being a primarily Powerplay swing bowler to a versatile T20 operator that he has kept veteran death-overs specialist Chris Jordan out of the England XI. England’s Sam Curran appeals for a wicket during the T20 World Cup cricket match between England and New Zealand in Brisbane, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard) Curran had spent a couple of seasons at “Because more than a bowler or a batsman, I have admired him as a captaincy material. That kind of a personality was always bound to improve in the rest of the crick...