England skipper Eoin Morgan hit a world record 17 sixes in his brilliant 71-ball 148 runs as England defeated Afghanistan by 150 runs in their ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2019 clash on Tuesday.
England went on to score their highest World Cup total with a massive 397/6 riding on splendid batting display from their batsmen Morgan along with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, who also scored half centuries.
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The Afghanistan side never really made a match out of it and managed just 247 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Adil Rashid picked up 3 wickets for 66 runs while Jofra Archer went on to pick 3 wickets for 52 runs.
With this win, England have inched closer to a spot in the semi finals, with four wins in five matches, while Afghanistan are out of the competition after having lost all their matches so far.
Tuesday’s match totally belonged to the England captain. On his way to his career best ODI knock, he registered the fourth fastest hundred in World Cup history reaching the milestone in only 57 balls. Apart from the 17 sixes he hit, Morgan managed as many as four boundaries.
Morgan broke the record for most sixes in an innings which was jointly held by Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle.
Although opener Bairstow and Joe Root also played pivotal roles, they were only playing second fiddle to their skipper who was in sensational touch.
Most impressive were his shots against world renowned spinner Rashid Khan. Khan went more than a “100” in his spell. His bowling figures read 9-0-110-0 and he clearly had a forgettable day on the field.
Rashid’s figures are now the worst for any bowler in a World Cup match as he overtook New Zealand’s Martin Snedden’s who had gone for 105 runs in his quota of 12 overs in the 1983 World Cup. It is to be noted that the 1983 World Cup was played in a 60 overs per side format and each bowler was allowed a maximum of 12 overs.
Afghanistan clearly had no answers to the questions posed to them by the hosts.
In the ICC CWC ahead, England play Sri Lanka on 21 June, Friday while Afghanistan meet India on 22 June, Saturday.
Brief Scores: England: 397/6 in 50 overs (Eoin Morgan 148, Jonny Bairstow 90) vs Afghanistan 247/8 in 50 overs (Hashmatullah Shahidi 76, Rahmat Shah 46, Asghar Afghan 44; Jofra Archer 3/52, Adil Rashid 3/66)
Player of the Match: Eoin Morgan
