England’s 2010 World T20 title win stands as one of the high points in the country’s limited-overs history, and was made all the more special because it came against their oldest rivals, Australia.
Heading into the final, it was Michael Clarke’s side that were more fancied, unbeaten in the tournament up until that point and having won their semi-final against Pakistan in extraordinary fashion. Speaking on the Sky Sports Watchalong, Eoin Morgan, part of the England side that lifted the trophy, explained how the Australians were “bullish like you’ve never seen”.
“A couple of days before the World Cup final, we’d had a couple of days to build in and our semi-final was before theirs, and obviously they’d had an incredible semi-final game against Pakistan where Mike Hussey smashed Saeed Ajmal at the end to win the game,” he said. “And on paper they’re quite an intimidating side. On paper they were a way better side than us.
“But them arriving into the hotel, because we stayed at the same hotel, drinking at the bar a couple of nights before, jeez they were bullish like you’ve never seen. More bullish than normal which is saying a lot, which makes this all the sweeter.”
Paul Collingwood, England captain at the time, recalled how he took the wind out of Australia batsman David Hussey’s sails shortly after Australia’s famous semi-final victory.
“Do you remember we came back from golf Morgs, and we were stood outside the bar and they were all in there?” he said. “I remember Jimmy [Anderson] was stood outside, he said ‘I’m not going in there,’ and I said ‘Nah come on, we’re going in’. I managed to get to the bar, I had the putter in my hand, I had my golf shoes on, and they were just cock-a-hoop on the beers. As Morgs says, they were bullish.
[breakout id=”0″][/breakout] “I went to the bar and I remember David Hussey came across, and I was like ‘Hello mate, you alright? What was the result?’ He goes, ‘What? You haven’t been watching? You haven’t been listening? We won!’ I was like ‘Ah alright, congrats.’ It was so easy.”
