England's one day captain Eoin Morgan became the first English player to play 200 One-day Internationals when he took to the field in the World Cup opener against South Africa at The Oval in London.

Morgan contributed with a breezy half century in England's group opener as his team set a 312-run target for South Africa at the Oval on Wednesday.

Under Morgan’s captaincy, the fortunes of English cricket has revived with them becoming one of the dominant forces in one day international cricket. After suffering an embarrassing group-stage exit in the 2015 edition, England are the world’s top-ranked ODI side four years on, and are being dubbed as one of the favourites to win the World Cup on home soil.

“It’s [stubbornness] probably one of the strongest sides of my personality. It’s something that I use quite a lot,” Morgan was quoted as saying by the ICC website. “And sort of to sum up, I never dreamt as a kid that I would captain England at a home World Cup.

“I dreamt about scoring a Test match 100. I dreamt about hitting the winning runs in a World Cup final, potentially. But I never dreamt not even in my wildest dreams that I would captain a home World Cup.”

The opening game will mark Morgan’s 223rd One-day international. He started his career with his native Ireland, where he scored 774 runs at an average of 35.42. “From the age of 13, I wanted to play cricket for England. I’ve never felt any shame in saying this is what I wanted to do.”