JUNE 18, 2019
Brief Scorecard: England 397 for 6 (Morgan 148, Bairstow 90, Naib 3-68) beat Afghanistan 247 for 8 (Shahidi 76, Archer 3-52) by 150 runs
MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM – England dished out one of their most devastating performances with the bat in the World Cup 2019 on Tuesday as they crushed Afghanistan by 150 runs in Manchester to grab the top spot in the points table with their fourth win of the tournament.
This was the biggest win for England in terms of runs since the 1975 World Cup game against India which they had won by 202 runs.
The game was taken away from Afghanistan in the first innings itself when England posted their highest World Cup score of 397 for 6 in 50 overs after opting to bat first.
England skipper Eoin Morgan led the way with a swashbuckling 148 off 71 balls while Jonny Bairstow (90), Joe Root (88) and Moeen Ali (31 not out) played the supporting roles as the hosts ended up with the 6th highest team total in a World Cup.
Afghanistan in reply, could never match up to the required run rate but they did show a lot of fight and were determined to get as close to the total as possible.
Hashmatullah Shahidi (76), Rahmat Shah (46) and Asghar Afghan (44) made sure they didn’t give up without a fight and took Afghanistan to 247 for 8 in 50 overs.
The match also broke the record for the most sixes hit during a World Cup game with 33, bettering the previous record of 31 which took place in the match between New Zealand and West Indies in Wellington in 2015.
Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer were the pick of the bowlers for England as they bagged 3 wickets each while Mark Wood took two.
Earlier, Eoin Morgan demolished the Afghanistan bowling attack and smashed the fourth fastest hundred in World Cup history as England reached 397 for 6. Morgan ended up clobbering 17 sixes, a world record in ODI cricket.
England finished with 25 sixes in total which is also the most hit by a team in an ODI innings. 17 maximums were hit by the captain himself, while Moeen Ali hit four and Bairstow clobbered 3 sixes. Root also managed to hit one out of the park. Moeen Ali played a lovely cameo in the end, scoring 31 not out off 9 balls.
Morgan was superbly assisted by Joe Root in the 189-run partnership for the third wicket during which Root made 88 runs off 82 balls. Before that Root was involved in a 120-run stand for the second wicket with Jonny Bairstow, who scored 90 off 99 balls.
Morgan and Co took all the Afghanistan bowlers to the cleaners but the batsmen were particularly brutal against leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who conceded 110 runs from his 9 overs without taking a wicket, which is the most runs conceded in a World Cup match.
Courtesy/Source: India Today
