The England skipper Eoin Morgan notched up a record in T20 internationals when he slammed a 21-ball fifty against South Africa in the third T20I at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday (Feb 16). He equaled his own record of the fastest half-century in the shortest format for England. Morgan had scored a 21-ball fifty against New Zealand in November last year at Napier.
Overall it’s the joint tenth-fastest fifty in the list led by Yuvraj Singh, who had scored a 12-ball 50 against England in the 2007 T20 World Cup. Austria’s Mirza Ahsan, with a 13-ball fifty against Luxembourg in 2019, sits at the second spot, followed by New Zealand’s Colin Munro (14), Saudi Arabia’s Faisal Khan (15) and Shai Hope of West Indies (16).
Fastest fifties for England in T20Is:
- 21 – Eoin Morgan (ENG) vs South Africa – Feb 2020
- 21 – Eoin Morgan (ENG) vs New Zealand – Nov 2019
- 22 – Jos Buttler (ENG) vs Australia – June 2018
- 22 – Jason Roy (ENG) vs South Africa – Feb 2020
In the match, the English team chased down the mammoth total of 222 with five balls to spare. Morgan went unbeaten on 57 off 22 balls with a mind-boggling strike rate of 259.09. He also smashed seven sixes during epic run-chase England to clinch the T20I series 2-1.
For his incredible show in the contest along with the series, Morgan was honored with both ‘Player of the Match’ and ‘Player of the Series’ award.
Man of the match…
Man of the series…
Message for @Eoin16? 😍 pic.twitter.com/RZjOlaELhx— England Cricket (@englandcricket) February 16, 2020
Meanwhile, the visitors have been fined 20 percent of their match fees for maintaining slow over-rate in the final T20I. They were one-over short of the target after the time allowances were taken into consideration.
“In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offenses, players are fined 20 percent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time,” the ICC release said.
Morgan accepted the sanction laid out by the match officials, Adrian Holdstock and Allahudien Paleker, third umpire Bongani Jele and fourth umpire Brad White.
