| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Colombo: After magnificent 99 by Luke Wright England annihilated Afghanistan by 116 runs to start their title defense in fine style at the R Premadasa in Colombo on Friday.
After a strong pace attack, the English spinners rocked the Afghanistan middle order in their World T20 match against England at the R Premadasa Stadium.
A Samit Patel double strike left Afghanistan down in the dumps when he scalped Dawlat Zadran (0) and Mohammad Nabi (1) in his first over to start his World Twenty20 campaign in impressive fashion.
Nabi was completely deceived by Patel to be bowled in stunning fashion right before Dawlat had failed to read the spinner's swinger to be stumped by an alert Craig Kieswetter.
After their batting onslaught earlier, England began their bowling attack in similar fashion when the pacers struck to give Afghanistan the worst possible start to their innings.
Steven Finn scalped Mohammad Shahzad (1) before Jade Dernbach was able to get the better of Shafiqullah.
Shahzad hit a perfect delivery right up into the night sky and Broad, who took a comfortable catch, had no trouble whatsoever in sending the Afghan back.
Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal was the next in line to be dismissed when Broad bowled a short ball which was unsuccessfully hooked only to be caught by the bowler.
Broad then struck again to dismiss Asghar Stanikzai (4) when Stanikzai hit a catch straight to Johnny Bairstow. An uncomfortable hook shot got the better of the batsman to gift Broad with his second wicket.
Earlier, A remarkable batting performance by Luke Wright led England to put up an impressive score of 196/5 in their World T20 match against Afghanistan at the R Premadasa Stadium.
The swashbuckling knock by Wright helped England cross the 100-run mark before England lost the wickets of Eoin Morgan and Jos Butler in quick succession.
However, the innings was held steady by Wright's heroics, who hit six boundaries and two sixes in his impressive run-through to his half-century after putting up a solid 68 run partnership with Alex Hales.
Earlier, an unfortunate run out at the non striker's end claimed the wicket of Hales after the early dismissal of Craig Kieswetter, which seemed to give the defending champions jitters in their start to their World Twenty20 campaign.
Hales and Wright put up a quick fire partnership to hold the English innings steady as they demolished Shapoor Zadran in the fifth over of the match when they smashed 23 runs that included three fours and a six.
Hales, in his innings of 31 runs, hit five boundaries with an impressive strike rate of 114.81. Afghanistan bowler Karim Sadiq got a finger to a powerful Wright hit shot, which tracked backwards and hit the stumps to catch Hales outside.
Shapoor gave minnows Afghanistan the best possible start that they could have hoped for when he gave an early breakthrough by scalping Kieswetter for nought.
Kieswetter tried to open the face of the bat to use the pace, but Shapoor got the better of the batsman as the ball flicked off the bails after a bounce off an inside edge.
Having won the toss, Afghanistan elected to field after coming into this match heartbroken from their 23-run defeat to India.
On the other hand, England, looking to become the only team in the short history of T20 to have successfully defended the crown, were on a high after posting wins against Australia and Pakistan, in their two warm-up games.
Brief scores
England 196 for 5 (Wright 99*, Hales 31)
Afghanistan 80 (Gulbodin Naib 44)
Result England won by 116 runs
Points England 2, Afghanistan 0
MOM Luke Wright (England)
