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September 10 marks the birth anniversary of England’s white-ball captain Eoin Morgan, who turned 34 on Thursday.
Skipper Morgan has been instrumental in the much-need change in culture in England’s limited-overs set-up. He has set the tone with his fearless leadership.
During England’s triumphant 2019 World Cup campaign, the hosts met minnows Afghanistan in the round-robin stage of the competition at the Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester.
Morgan won the toss and opted to bat first. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow laid a solid platform for the hard-hitters to follow in the batting order.
When Morgan came out to bat, he picked the bones out of Afghanistan’s bowling lineup. The left-handed batsman smashed his career-best 148, which came off just 71 deliveries. He boasted a daunting strike-rate of 208 in the innings.
Further, the Irish born-born cricketer toppled the record for the most number of sixes in an ODI innings (18). Thereby, surpassing Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle‘s record of 17 sixes in an innings.
Here’s a recap of the blistering knock:
The Morgs innings so many of you asked for 😍pic.twitter.com/J9QWOkXftP
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 10, 2020
Morgan on his mega-knock
“Never, never have I ever thought I could play a knock like that. I’m delighted that I have. I think coming in at the time where it was a 50-50 shout whether myself or Jos (Buttler) went in probably helped that, because after I faced a few balls, I had no choice,” Morgan had told the reporters after receiving the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
“I had to start taking risks because of him coming in next, and then after I got dropped, it was a matter of just keep going. Yeah, one of those days,” he concluded.
With the help of Morgan’s pyrotechnics with the bat, England posted a monumental total of 397 runs and won the match by 150 runs. The hosts, eventually, cruised to the semi-finals and then defeated New Zealand in the final to clinch the 2019 ODI World Cup.
