England thrash Afghanistan by 9 wickets

SYDNEY (Web Desk) - England gained a 9 wicket victory over Afghanistan, on Friday, when it successfully chased the target of 101 runs after the match was affected by rain and reduced to 25 overs only.

English opener IR Bell , while chasing the target, made 52 runs off 56 balls only whereas AD Hales was ousted by Afghanistan's Hamid Hassan at 37 runs. JW Taylor also contributed with 8 runs to complete the chase with 41 balls remaining.

Earlier, while batting first, Afghanistan managed to score 111 for 7 wickets in 36.2 overs, which was reduced to 100 runs in 25 overs following Duckworth/Lewis method . Shafiqullah remained the most successful batsman who scored 30 runs off 64 balls. England's Ravi Bopara and CJ Jordon picked two wickets each whereas Anderson, Broad and Tredwell managed for one wicket for everyone.

England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field against Afghanistan in the World Cup Pool A match at an overcast Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

The grey skies above the SCG threatened to make batting first difficult in a match which ended up being decided on the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Neither side were able to qualify for the quarter-finals, making this fixture -- the first one-day international between England and Afghanistan -- both teams' last match of the tournament.

England made two changes to the side that suffered a 15-run loss to Bangladesh in Adelaide on Monday, a reverse that ended their hopes of reaching the last eight.

All-rounder Ravi Bopara and off-spinner James Tredwell were both called up for their first match of this World Cup after Chris Woakes (foot) and Moeen Ali (side) were ruled out with injuries sustained at the Adelaide Oval.

Afghanistan, who suffered a six-wicket defeat by New Zealand last time out, also made two changes, with batsmen Shafiqullah Shafiq and Nasir Jamal replacing Asghar Stanikzai and Usman Ghani.

Afghanistan: Nawroz Mangal, Javed Ahmadi, Afsar Zazai (wkt), Nasir Jamal, Samiullah Shenwari, Shafiqullah Shafiq, Mohammad Nabi (capt), Najibullah Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran, Hamid Hassan

England: Alex Hales, Ian Bell, James Taylor, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Jos Buttler (wkt), Ravi Bopara, Chris Jordan, James Tredwell, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.