Eoin Morgan's silences critics with ton against Australia, lauded by team-mates

New Delhi: Eoin Morgan might not have been in the best of form last year, but England's new ODI skipper slammed a fantastic ton against Australia in the first match of the ODI tri-series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

The Poms were reeling at 69/5 after Mitchell Starc got the hosts off to a terrific start by scalping two wickets off the first three balls of the innings.

After the fall of the fifth wicket, Morgan stitched crucial 69 runs with Jos Buttler for the sixth wicket. Once the wicketkeeper batsman was dismissed, Morgan took the responsibility entirely on his shoulders and got his side to a respectable score.

By the time he was dismissed in the 48th over of the innings, Morgan had played a captain's knock by scoring 121 runs.

Morgan started the year 2014 on a confident note by slamming a century and two half-centuries against the Aussies, but the left-hander witnessed a rough patch later on as he could hit only one half-century in the next 20 ODIs.

Morgan's classy knock was lauded by his team-mates on Twitter.

Now the Skipper... Needed a score... Gets one... Class act @Eoin16 ... #Ton — Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 16, 2015

Love @Eoin16! Batted buddy! There's the skipper! #AUSvENG

— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) January 16, 2015

Eoin Morgan...won't get the acknowledgement he deserves but one of the best odi captains innings I've seen — Adam Hollioake (@adamhollioake) January 16, 2015

Awsome @Eoin16 showing his class,what a knock — Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) January 16, 2015