Hosts England and Afghanistan clashed in the 24th match of the ICC World Cup 2019 at Old Trafford in Manchester. The match will be remembered more for the hosts, especially Eoin Morgan decimating the Afghanistan bowling.
England won the toss and Morgan chose to bat first meaning that the opposition bowlers were in for a bad day. They had a brief respite when James Vince was dismissed by Dawlat Zadran for 26 runs, but then came the storm which blew away the Afghan Atalan. First Jonny Bairstow (90) and Joe Root (88) added 120 runs for the second wicket in 20 overs. When Bairstow fell to Gulbadin Naib, Eoin Morgan walked in and would have definitely known that it was his lucky day.
Root and Morgan added 189 runs for the third wicket which took away the game from further away from Afghanistan. Morgan scored his fifty in 36 balls and then reached his century in just 57 deliveries and was dismissed finally for 148 in just 71 balls with 4 fours and 17 sixes to his name.
Morgan’s innings broke a plethora of records, starting with the fourth fastest hundred in World Cup history, the most number of sixes by a batsman in an ODI match, beating the record of Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers, and Chris Gayle. Most sixes by a team in one innings (25) were hit by England and a total of 33 sixes were hit in the match, another world record.
Just when Afghanistan struck with a bagful of wickets of Morgan, Root, Buttler, and Stokes, Moeen Ali smashed 31*off just 9 balls with 4 sixes and 1 four to lead England to 397/6 in 50 overs.
For Afghanistan, skipper Naib picked 3/68 and Dawlat Zadran picked 3/85, while star leg-spinner Rashid Khan too made a record of unwanted types. He went for 110 runs in 9 overs, the most expensive bowling figures in World Cup history and also was hit for 11 sixes, the most to a single bowler. His bowling figures were also the most expensive one for a spinner in ODI.
In reply, Afghanistan was never in the chase but Hashmatullah Shahidi made 76, Rahmat Shah made 46 and Asghar Afghan made 44 runs. Adil Rashid picked 3/66 and Jofra Archer picked 3/52 for England, who registered a thumping win by 150 runs, as Afghanistan managed 247/8 in 50 overs.
BRIEF SCORES:
ENG 397/6 (E MORGAN 148; G NAIB 3/68) defeated AFG 247/8 (H SHAHIDI 76; J ARCHER 3/52) by 150 runs
