BBL 2019-20: Chris Morris showcases his football skills to run out Daniel Hughes

Cricketers and their penchant towards playing football have been in the news in the past few days. It all started when England Test opener Rory Burns suffered an injury and was subsequently ruled out of the ongoing England-South Africa Test series during a football session with his teammates ahead of the Cape Town Test. In the past, quite a few cricketers have got injured while playing football in their training session and the practice has now been banned by the English camp.

But on Saturday, cricketers and their penchant for playing football was in the news for all the right reasons than to the South African all-rounder Chris Morris brilliant football skills that led to the run-out of the Sydney Sixers batsman Daniel Hughes. Morris, who is currently plying his trade for the Sydney Thunder, has already made quite an impression in the ongoing Big Bash League and Saturday was just another day where the all-rounder showcased his multi-faceted skills.

It all happened on the penultimate ball of the first over of Sydney Sixers innings when Morris had bowled a short-of-a-length delivery outside the off-side to Daniel Hughes. Hughes, who wanted to carve the ball on the off-side, managed to defend it in front of the bowler before he decided to take-off for a single.

But, little did Hughes knew that Morris had set-off rather swiftly and before he could realize, the all-rounder kicked the ball straight into the stumps, leaving the opener, the crowd as well as the commentators gobsmacked at his precocious soccer skills.

“Terrific finish. It’s a lovely finish by Chris Morris in the bottom corner. Excellent skills from Morris, the perfect start for Thunder”, said the commentators on air.

Chris Morris and Daniel Sams wrecked through the Sixers batting-unit

Chris Morris wasn’t done though! After showcasing his soccer skills, the all-rounder then proceeded to unleash his bowling skills as he went on to claim the wicket of Moises Henriques in his next over where he surprised the Sixers captain with a back-of-a-length delivery, inducing an outside edger which was safely gobbled by the wicket-keeper. Morris finished with figures of 2-12 in 3.5 over, and along with Daniel Sams [3-14] proceeded to restrict the Sixers to 76 in 15.5 overs.

With the rain causing a delay, the Thunder needed to get a revised total of 75 runs, and even though they lost a couple of wickets, they made sure that the team was four runs ahead of the DLS par score when the rain caused the final interruption during the sixth over of their run-chase. Morris was deservedly awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ award.

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