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Irishman breaks Afghan hearts

MANCHESTER: When we bumped into Eoin Morgan yesterday, an Afghan journalist wanted to be photographed with him. Morgan was modest and diffident, almost shy. “Such a nice man,” said a watcher. Today Morgan was incredibly violent, far from shy or diffident — he smashed 17 sixers in his innings of 148 off 71 balls, ie 102 runs from sixers alone.

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Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Manchester, June 18

When we bumped into Eoin Morgan yesterday, an Afghan journalist wanted to be photographed with him. Morgan was modest and diffident, almost shy. “Such a nice man,” said a watcher. Today Morgan was incredibly violent, far from shy or diffident — he smashed 17 sixers in his innings of 148 off 71 balls, ie 102 runs from sixers alone.

To put this in context, consider this: Virat Kohli struck 13 sixers in ODIs in the whole of 2018; Rohit Sharma hit 19 in 2016 and has hit 22 in 16 ODIs this year.

Seventeen sixers in an innings is a record. Never before had this been done; and it seems only Englishmen have the power to do such things now. Morgan, though, is not an Englishman — born in Dublin, he comes from the Republic of Ireland, and debuted for the Irish team in 2006. Now he’s the Irishman who is leading England towards their first World Cup title.

Raining sixers

Morgan’s rain of sixers broke the previous ODI record of 16, which had been held jointly by Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle. The World Cup record was held by Gayle, with the 16 he struck against Zimbabwe in the 2015 tournament in Australia.

Such was the power of England’s strike-force, led by Morgan, that they got 233 runs in the last 20 overs, 142 of them in the final 10 overs. Morgan had been dropped on 28, and he made the Afghans pay with 120 off the next 45 balls he faced. That caused mayhem.

Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s best player, had a terrible day. Yesterday Morgan had said that the Afghan spinners would be a challenge that “we’re going to have to overcome”. They did overcome the ‘challenge’, and Rashid was smashed around like he was a club cricketer — taken for 11 sixers, he conceded 110 runs off nine overs.  

The British-Afghan were left crestfallen after the assault from a British-Irishman. Across the Irish Sea, in Republic of Ireland — a separate country, let’s remember —there was much rejoicing, and newspapers hailed the “Irish cricket star Eoin Morgan” for his astonishing feat of hitting 17 sixers and four fours today.


England win by 150 runs

England captain Eoin Morgan blasted a record 17 sixes in a blistering century as the hosts crushed Afghanistan by 150 runs in their match on Tuesday. Morgan smashed a career-best 148, Jonny Bairstow made 90 and Joe Root scored 88 to power England to a commanding 397/6 after opting to bat at Old Trafford. Dawlat Zadran, who dropped Morgan on 24, and Gulbadin Naib claimed three wickets apiece but spin spearhead Rashid Khan logged the worst bowling figures in the history of the World Cup — 110 runs off nine overs without a single wicket. Hashmatullah Shahidi (76), Asghar Afghan (44) and Rahmat Shah (46) helped Afghanistan to 247/8, their highest total in World Cup. Reuters


QUICK GUN MORGAN

397 England’s highest total in a World Cup match and the sixth-highest ever in the competition. Australia top the list with 417/6, also against Afghanistan, in 2015

25 Sixes in England’s innings, breaking their own record for sixes in an innings (24 sixes vs WI in February this year). England hit only 18 sixes in six matches at the 2015 World Cup

17 Sixes by Morgan in his knock of 148 runs off 71 balls -- a new ODI record to dethrone Chris Gayle (WI), AB de Villiers (SA) and Rohit Sharma (Ind) who had shared the record with 16 sixes each. Morgan’s haul was one short of the entire England team’s tally for sixes in 2015. Morgan also hit his 200th ODI six as he lifted his overall tally to 211

4TH Fastest century (57 balls) in a World Cup match by Morgan. The record is held by Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien, who reached triple figure in 50 balls against England in 2011

110 Runs conceded without taking a single wicket in nine overs by Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan — the worst bowling figures in a World Cup match. It was also the joint second-worst in ODI history. Rashid also became the first spinner to concede more than 100 runs in an ODI. Having never conceded more than two sixes in an innings, the 20-year-old conceded 11 of them against England

189 Run partnership for the third wicket between Eoin Morgan and Joe Root, who scored 88 runs off 82 balls. It is England’s highest partnership in a World Cup match

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