England captain Eoin Morgan smashed a world record 17 sixes in his blistering 71-ball-148 as the hosts crushed Afghanistan by 150 runs in a World Cup encounter here on Tuesday. England scored their highest World Cup total 397 for 6 riding on brilliant batting performances of Morgan, Joe Root (88 off 82) and Jonny Bairstow (90 off 99). The Afghans were never in the contest and managed only 247 for 8 with Adil Rashid picking up 3 for 66 and the talented Jofra Archer taking 3 for 52. With this win, England moved a step closer to the semi-final qualification with four wins from five matches while Afghanistan are out of the competition having lost all five games.
Tuesday's game belonged to England captain, who enroute his career-best knock also hit the fourth fastest hundred in World Cup history, getting his 13th ODI hundred off only 57 balls. Apart from 17 sixes, the left-hander also hit four boundaries.An elated Eoin Norgan, adjudged Man of the Match, said, 'I think Clive Llyod can still hit the ball longer than me, especially with my bad back. Today was fantastic for us. The wicket was very good. I thought everything from the way we started - our openers started well. Bairstow and Root were excellent, and then we just took a gamble and it paid off. Didn't really think it was going to be my day at any point to be honest. I've had a bad back, looks like I'm getting old'.
