England’s tearaway pacer Mark Wood has often claimed that he is a better batter than he is perceived to be. When England feared suffering the biggest defeat in World Cup history, Wood had his own piece of his history in mind. Wood became the first no.10 batter to hit five sixes in a World Cup innings. His unbeaten 17-ball 43 is the second-highest score by a no.10 batter in the tournament’s history.
Wood broke the record of West Indies' Daren Powell and the Netherlands' Aryan Dutt who have hit three sixes each at the no.10 position. Had Gus Atkinson stayed in the crease for a longer duration, Wood had a chance to become the first no.10 batter to score a half-century in World Cups.
The previous highest score for a no.10 England batter in World Cups belonged to Bob Willis who scored 24 runs from 37 balls against Pakistan in the 1979 World Cup.
Wood also missed out on breaking the record for the highest score by a no.10 England batter in ODIs. Darren Gough's unbeaten 46 against Australia in 2005 is still on the top.
Wood walked in to bat when England were 100/8 in the 17th over after David Willey was dismissed by Lungi Ngidi. He did not score a single run off the first three balls. In the next over bowled by Marco Jansen, Wood hit a four followed by two sixes. He took on left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj and hit him for a six in the 20th over. Maharaj continued to bowl and Wood smashed him for two sixes and a four. He took a single to get Atkinson on strike. Atkinson got bowled and Wood missed out on breaking a few records as an injured Reece Topley did not come out to bat.
England ended up losing the match by 229 runs. This is their biggest defeat in ODIs by runs. The previous biggest defeat came against Australia by 221 runs in 2022.
Earlier, Wood was expensive with the ball as he conceded 76 runs from seven overs. As a result, South Africa posted a massive total of 399/7 on the board at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
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