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Eoin Morgan: reverse sweeps and keeping calm
Of all the many eye-catching features of Eoin Morgan’s batting, it’s one of the least noticeable which is perhaps the most significant. He’s very, very calm.
Eoin Morgan is the England one-day batsman you most want to watch, but he’s increasingly the one you most rely on as well. He’s like a Paul Collingwood Deluxe.
If you pieced together a one-day batsman from bits of other ones, you’d have something not dissimilar to Morgan. Chris Gayle’s power, wrists that put Murali’s to shame and the coolness and eye for a run-chase of Michael Bevan.
Most of you are English. Don’t let us down here. Let’s work out how it’s all going to go wrong.
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It’s not going to go wrong. He isn’t English. I have used my powers of deduction thus:
> He has far too large a vowel to consonants ratio in his first name.
> He can actually finish a one-day innings. You know, and win. That thing other teams do that annoys us.
Seriously though, name me one successful England run chase that didn’t involve a Morgan performance in games he has played.
I’ll name you two, Jake.
No, actually I can’t.
(A) Ireland will humiliate England at the World Twenty20, and Morgan will decide to return to the land of his birth (after the mandatory ‘wilderness’ period, of course).
(B) He will have to retire from cricket after a prolonged legal battle with KP over the rights to the ‘KP Patented Offical Brylcreem Reverse Sweep’.
(C) It will be revealed that he is in fact made up of parts of other cricketers, in a top-secret ECB Project Frankenstein (AKA Project Collingwood 2).
(D) Opposition bowlers will get the measure of him, he’ll capitulate against the Aussies down under, his confidence will take a nosedive, and he’ll return to wowing County crowds a la Ramprakash/Hick/etc
Just been through statsguru – England have had 6 successful run chases with Morgan. He has finished not out in 5 of them, and three of those were fifties. The only other was the 7th ODI against Australia (he got 2) and I’m still not convinced that series really happened.
If he doesn’t sort it out and become actually a bit shit soon, they’re going to have to find a reason to stop picking him.
Maybe he shagged KP’s ex-girlfriend when they were kids in South Africa. I assume he’s South African.
Deep down we are all – to the extent that we are good at cricket – from South Africa it would seem.
imagine a cricketer who was half gayle and half murali.
he would scare the living shitbags out of you.
Just make him “One To Watch”, KC. That should do the trick.
…either that, Bert or no. 3 in the Test team. That’s a sure fire killer
Ricky is going to hire someone to ice pick his knee sometime this November.