Sam Curran claimed England's first ever T20 five wicket haul in a performance that was beyond even his own expectations as Afghanistan were brushed aside in Perth.
The five wicket win was built on the back of a truly outstanding bowling and fielding display of which Curran's 5-10 from 3.4 overs was the star turn. Capable of turning his hand to almost anything on a cricket field, it was Curran's first World Cup game having missed the last one through a back injury and he certainly made the most of it.
He has emerged as England's death bowling star and by wrapping up the Afghan innings with four wickets in six balls he showed just how good he can be. "At the start of the game, I didn't expect to be walking off like that," admitted Curran.
"I wasn't aware it was the first five wicket haul, and that is great, but the most important thing is we got the win. I had a chat with Jos, and he challenged me and said I should be ready to bowl in all phases.
"You want to be involved in the tough situations and sometimes it won't come off as I'm very aware of. Having had a consistent run in the side has given me a lot of confidence because I missed the last tournament and I'm really enjoying it."
Curran's efforts left England with a comfortable enough target of 112 to get, but the chase was far from straightforward though as a combination of poor shot selection and competitive bowling meant only one player scored more than 20.
Liam Livingstone was the man who eventually anchored the innings home with 29 not out, putting away some of his more flamboyant strokes in the interest of sound game management. So much of England's white ball success in recent years has been down to their incredibly powerful batting lineup, but not this time as the batsmen spluttered, while the bowlers purred.
Along with Curran there were others queuing up to show what they could do too, whether it was Mark Wood's 2-23 that came as a result of the fastest four overs this tournament has ever seen. Averaging 92.6 mph across his 24 deliveries, Wood was too hot to handle for the Afghans who could be forgiven for swinging and missing inside the line.
There was a high quality 2-19 from Ben Stokes who opened the bowling in the match and enjoyed a completely different experience to the previous over he had bowled in the event back in 2016. And we haven't even mentioned the fielding yet either, with a selection of outrageously good catches all over the giant playing surface.
From Livingstone, to Adil Rashid to Jos Buttler, they all held on to stunning catches that made a real difference to the game. Curran added: "We've really worked hard on our fielding in the last couple of weeks, we know it's going to be important in this tournament.
"Liam Livingstone got us started with that great catch and set the standard for the rest of the innings." This was an ideal start to the tournament for England and reaffirms just why they might have already elbowed Australia out the way as favourites for the title, even with a shaky chase.
Then again they had the same tag a year ago in the UAE after bowling the Windies out for 55 in their first game before coming unstuck at the business end, but this is potentially a better team, thanks in part to the re-emergence of Curran.
And he already has half an eye on the big game with Australia on Friday. "There is no hiding that Friday is going to be an epic game with Australia and if we win there it will be great for us and it might put the Aussies in a tricky position," he added.
