Many cricketers played for different countries in their cricketing careers from the very beginning. Some excelled in one country whereas the others impressed everyone with their skills in both the countries. In the T20 match played between India and New Zealand last night, Mark Chapman became the first batter who scored a half-century for 2 different national cricket teams in a T20I match. Let's take a look at the interesting cricket facts of 6 players to have scored half-centuries for two different countries.
1. Kepler Wessels
Kepler Wessels played for both Australia and South Africa during his days. He played for Australia from 1982-1986, and then for South Africa from 1992-1994. He is the only cricketer to reach this feat in 2 formats: Test matches and ODIs. He hit 9 half-centuries and 4 centuries for Australia. He scored his highest score for Australia, 179 in 1983 against Pakistan, and he scored his highest score for South Africa, 118 in 1992 against India. Cricket facts about this cricketer are that he is the only player to play with an average of 30+ in Tests for both the countries he played for.
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2. Xavier Marshall
Xavier Marshall started his long cricketing journey of 37 years playing for the West Indies and then moved on to play for the USA. In the duration of 2005 to 2009, he played 24 ODI for the West Indies cricket team and played 13 ODIs for the USA between 2019-2020. In 2008 he hit his highest score playing for West Indies of an unbeaten 157. On the other hand, his highest score for the USA is 50 that he scored in 2019 against Scotland. During his long cricketing journey, he smashed 1 half-century and 1 century.
3. Ed Joyce
![Ed Joyce: Cricket facts: 6 Players to have scored 50s for two different countries | SportzPoint.com](https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/sportzpoint/media/post_attachments/33fa3af8ee990bf261493abee8dbba827360f54b1508e73ce491ba1042f31f5f.jpg)
Ed Joyce achieved this landmark while playing ODI for England and Ireland. He smashed both half-centuries and half-centuries for both England and Ireland he played for. Joyce featured in 17 ODI matches for England between 2006-2007 and then joined Ireland. From 2011 to 2018, he played 61 ODI matches for Ireland. While playing for England he hit 3 half-centuries and 1 century whereas for Ireland he smashed 12 half-centuries and 5 centuries. His highest score for England came in a match against Australia in 2007 and his highest score for Ireland is 160 vs Afghanistan.
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4. Eoin Morgan
![Eoin Morgan: Cricket facts: 6 Players to have scored 50s for two different countries | SportzPoint.com](https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/sportzpoint/media/post_attachments/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Eoin-Morgan-England.jpg)
Interesting cricket facts about the captain of the England cricket team is that he started his cricketing journey with Ireland and then shifted to play for England. He featured in 23 ODI matches for Ireland from 2006-2009. From 2009 he started playing for England and played 223 matches till today. While playing for Ireland, he hit 5 half-centuries and 1 century. And for England, he scored 42 half-centuries and 13 centuries. His highest score while playing for Ireland is 115 that he hit in 2007 against Canada. On the other hand, he scored his highest score for England against Afghanistan and made 148.
5. Luke Ronchi
Luke Ronchi, the present New Zealand cricketer started his career as a cricketer of Australia. He featured in 4 ODI matches and 3 T20I matches between 2008-2009 while playing for Australia. Then he joined the Kiwis and played 29 T20I matches and 81 ODI matches between the duration of 2013 and 2017. While playing for Australia he hit his highest score of 64 against West Indies. He smashed unbeaten 170 runs in just 99 balls against Sri Lanka in 2015 and this is also his highest score playing for New Zealand.
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6. Mark Chapman
The most recent cricketer to join this clan is Mark Chapman of New Zealand. The Kiwi cricketer started his journey playing for Hong Kong and then moved to New Zealand. He scored 63 runs for Hong Kong in 2015 against Oman. And for New Zealand, he smashed unbeaten 63 runs against India yesterday. He played a very crucial knock yesterday but unfortunately, the Blackcaps failed to win. He is the first-ever batter to score half-centuries for two different countries in T20I matches.