He may have bowled like lightning and taken two wickets in a game when almost all the bowlers excelled, and Sam Curran became the first Englishman to take a Twenty20 five-fer, but Mark Wood felt the most inspiring aspect of England’s performance in Saturday’s World Cup opener against Afghanistan was the fielding. A string of high-quality catches helped them take control of the game, and for Wood they amounted to a demonstration of teamwork and togetherness.
“We’re hunting as a pack to get the next wicket, you feel you’re together, people are moving well, there’s a bit of a buzz around the field, everyone’s running out of position,” he said. “I think in general you don’t want to get ahead of yourself but we felt ready for this game and now the challenge is, can we back it up?”
