Miracle man Morgan reflects on BBL heroics

On Wednesday night at Spotless Stadium, Sydney Thunder international recruit Eoin Morgan lived out the dream of every cricket-loving child around the world: he hit the last ball of the match for six to win the game.

The Thunder needed five runs from the final ball to beat the Melbourne Stars and to the unbridled delight of the 20,076 in attendance Morgan sent Ben Hilfenhaus over long-on for the match-winning maximum to keep the defending champions’ season alive.

Quick Single: Morgan's last-ball maximum keeps Thunder alive

“Unbelievable,” Morgan said in the wake of his heroics after he finished unbeaten on 71 from 50 balls.

“It’s quite an extraordinary feeling when you get one as clean out of the middle as that - it’s a bit like standing on the tee box and smashing one down the middle.

“When you hit it, you’re the only person who knows how well you’ve hit it.

“A pretty special feeling and nice to get over the line.”

Morgan says last night’s finish is “up there” with one of the best victories in his career.

“I’ve only ever had one other last-ball finish and that was against India in a T20 game,” he said. “We needed four off the last ball and I hit a six.

“Any time you win a game of cricket when you hit the winning runs is special.”

Quick Single: Seven-ball over that never was

Having started BBL|06 with four straight defeats, the Thunder’s campaign was on a cliff’s edge heading into last night's must-win clash against the Stars - a rematch of last summer’s grand final.

“T20 cricket is very difficult when you get in the habit of losing,” Morgan said. “Turning that around is very hard work and the longer you leave it the further away it gets from you and it’s actually quite strenuous on everybody in the squad.

“We’ve spoken about the games that we’ve played before.

“Two of the four games we could have gotten over the line.

“It hasn’t been our tournament so far but you need to time your run in these tournaments hoping that this is going to be the turning point in the competition for us.”

It was a bittersweet moment for Morgan, who made his most significant contribution of the competition in his last outing as he now jets off to the subcontinent to lead England in their limited-overs series against India.

“I’d have loved to stay for the whole tournament,” he said. “Coming over for such a short space of time you always wonder how much impact you’re going to have but credit to (CEO) Nick Cummins and (coach) Paddy Upton whose brought me in and trusted me with their confidence.

“It’s unfortunate to go but India beckons.”

Replacing Morgan is fellow England international James Vince, who was played five Tests and a handful of limited-overs internationals at the highest level.

“Vincy’s a very classy player, he’s bit more orthodox than me,” Morgan said. “He’s played at Hampshire for a long time and his England experience in the white-ball form has been brilliant.

“The T20 series he played in the UAE against Pakistan he got man of the series.

“We’ve got quite a strong squad of players at the moment so unfortunately he misses out of the tour to India.”