Morgan shows his class again

CRICKET WORLD CUP QUALIFIER: WITH THE kind of timing that has always marked him out as a special cricketer, Eoin Morgan yet again displayed his class to help Ireland continue their unbeaten run at the World Cup qualifiers with a six-wicket victory over Canada in South Africa yesterday.

Just hours after learning that he had been selected by England in their 30-man provisional squad for this summer’s Twenty20 World Cup, the 22-year-old Dubliner helped rescue Ireland from a precarious position of 42 for four in a stunning, unbeaten fifth-wicket partnership of 181 with Kevin O’Brien.

The Middlesex left-hander finished unbeaten on 84 to take the man-of-the-match honours, even though O’Brien outscored him, hitting the winning boundary to move to 89 and bring his tally to 196 in three innings without giving up his wicket.

Chasing 220 for victory, the pair had come together at the start of the 10th over with a job of work to do after left-arm seamer Umar Bhatti had claimed three early wickets.

Morgan consolidated at first against Canada’s opening attack and took 18 balls to get off the mark, while O’Brien had a lucky escape early on when Khurram Chauhan botched a routine caught-and-bowled chance after he had made just six.

They soon found their rhythm and were particularly harsh on Canada’s slow bowlers on a good batting track. Morgan brought up his 50 and the 100 partnership in the 29th over with a four off John Davison, with O’Brien going one better in the same over by hoisting the bowler for six to reach his half-century.

They were rarely troubled on the run-in as they chased down the target with a full nine overs to spare to wrap up a fourth straight victory.

After being put into bat, the Canadians failed to build on a fine start, with Trent Johnston taking his first two wickets in the tournament to get rid of key man Davison for 41, and Geoff Barnett for 49.

Boyd Rankin also took two wickets, while the Canadians didn’t help themselves, with four batsman being run out as they were bowled out for 220 with two overs remaining.

Morgan admitted that Ireland’s nervous start didn’t affect him.

“To be honest I was pretty calm about it,” he said. “I knew it was a good wicket – that was quite evident from the first innings – so I knew if I built a solid base, I could be there at the end.

“Kevin and I compliment each other quite well at the crease. He is an aggressive player who hits boundaries pretty much anywhere he wants to, while I like to accumulate my runs, so it was a good partnership.”

Ireland are now the only unbeaten team in the competition and face Namibia in their final Group A game tomorrow knowing a victory will enable them to bring a full quota of points through to the Super Eights stage of the tournament.

That may well be the last time Morgan plays in an Ireland shirt, after the unsurprising news that England have called him up to their provisional squad as they look to win the Twenty20 World Cup on home soil in June.

Ireland will also take part in the competition, but will have to wait until May 1st when England name their squad of 15 to see if Morgan will be available to them.

The player himself has never hid his ambition to follow former Middlesex and Ireland team-mate Ed Joyce into the England set-up, with the eventual goal of playing Test cricket.

Details in SPORTS ROUND-UP

ENGLAND (provisional 30-man squad for the Twenty20 World Cup): K Ali, J Anderson, G Batty, I Bell, R Bopara, T Bresnan, S Broad, P Collingwood, S Davies, J Denly, J Foster, A Flintoff, S Harmison, R Key, S Mahmood, D Mascarenhas, E Morgan, G Napier, S Patel, K Pietersen, L Plunkett, M Prior, A Rashid, O Shah, R Sidebottom, G Swann, C Tremlett, S Udal, C Woakes, L Wright.