England-born Inglis relishes 'special' century for Australia / Photo: © AFP
England-born Inglis relishes 'special' century for Australia
England-born Josh Inglis described his match-winning century for Australia against his native country in the Champions Trophy on Saturday as "special" and admitted the days he supported the English in sport "are long gone".
Inglis was born in the northern city of Leeds but relocated to Perth as a 14-year-old.
Since then, the wicket-keeper/batsman has established his international credentials, firstly as a white-ball player and then making his Test debut last month.
On Saturday the 29-year-old smashed an unbeaten maiden ODI hundred against the country of his birth to help Australia to a record Champions Trophy chase of 352 runs and a five-wicket win in Lahore.
Inglis cracked a 86-ball 120 which overshadowed England opener Ben Duckett's knock of 165, the highest individual score in Champions Trophy history.
Asked if he still supports England, Inglis replied: "Those days are long gone, I think. But I still support (Mancheser) City in football.
"I've already had a few messages from England, so that's been nice."
On making a century, he added: "I think it's really special. It doesn't matter who it's against. I think, like I said before, it's a really tight, quick tournament. You've got to be right on it from the first game.
"So, I think that's probably the most pleasing thing, to get a win on the board in game one."
Inglis brought Australia's tough chase back on track from a precarious 136-4 with a fifth-wicket stand of 146 with Alex Carey who made a solid 63-ball 69.
The pair built on another stand of 95 between Matthew Short (63) and Marnus Labuschange (47) for the third wicket.
"They sort of set the platform there, got us off to a good start. We were in and around the run rate to start off with, so that was a big help," said Inglis.
"And then, yeah, me and Carey, we didn't really say too much out there. Carey is pretty quiet when he's batting, so I think we were going pretty well."
Once Carey departed, Glenn Maxwell smashed a 15-ball 32 not out to complete the job.
"I think 350 is a big total in any one-day game but we sort of knew, we trained here at night for the last couple of days and it got really dewy around 7.30-8 o'clock," explained Inglis.
"So, we sort of knew that was in our favour during the run chase and if we could take it deep enough it would be tough for the bowlers at the back end.
"It made life easier for us, the wicket skidded on beautifully and it really helped our run chase."
South Africa beat Afghanistan by 107 runs in the other Group B clash in Karachi on Friday.
Arch-rivals India face Pakistan in a high-voltage Group A match Dubai on Sunday. New Zealand and Bangladesh are the other two teams in the pool.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.
R.Campbell--TNT
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