In one of the most exciting World Cup cricket matches, Ireland stunned England by three wickets on March 2, 2011 while recording the highest ever-successful run chase in the history of World Cup. The victory was the highest successful run chase in World Cup history, beating 313 by Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe at New Plymouth in New Zealand in 1992.

After being down at 111 for five, Ireland made a mockery of English bowling to overhaul England’s target of 327 for 8 in this match at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday. The giant victory was primarily attributed to Kevin O’Brien who clocked up the fastest ever hundred in World Cup by hammering century in just 50 balls.

O’Brien told Sky Sports: “I’m pretty speechless at the moment.

“To be honest it’s the best innings I’ve ever played since I started playing cricket. I just kept going and kept believing and it went our way.

“When we were 111 for five we could have just pottered around, but I chanced my arm and we didn’t look back really. We attacked and it came off.”

England captain Andrew Strauss said: “We thought we’d done a reasonable job with the bat and we got Ireland at five down and things were looking pretty comfortable.

“But we weren’t reckoning on an outstanding innings from Kevin O’Brien. It was pretty brutal.”

O’Brien scored 113 and smashed six sixes and 13 fours in a 50-ball hundred and dominated a stand of 162 in 17 overs with Alex Cusack who scored 47. O’Brien bettered former Australia opener Matthew Hayden’s previous fastest World Cup century record off 66 balls against South Africa at St Kitts in 2007.

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There have many few names in the world of football that have raised adrenaline of male and female fans like David Robert Joseph Beckham, popularly known to all of us as David Beckham. The midfielder is a well-known name both in and out of the field and holds the all-time appearance record for an outfield player.

Born on 2 May 1975, Beckham has played for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Milan, and the England national team. He made his England debut on 1 September 1996 and became captain of the English team from 15 November 2000 to the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals. In the year 2004, David Beckham became the first British footballer to play 100 Champions League matches and was the most searched of all sport topics in both 2003 and 2004 as per Google, the world’s most preferred search engine.

The year 2001-02 was, arguably, the best season of Beckham as a United Player when he scored 11 goals in 28 league games and a total of 16 goals in 42 games in all competitions. David Beckham was awarded an OBE for services to football on 13 June 2003. He is the only English player and the 21st player overall to score in three World Cups and only the fifth player in World Cup history to score twice from a direct free kick. Beckham has pledged his support for the current Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign and has been supporting UNICEF since his Manchester United days.

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