Eoin Morgan Pleased With England’s Performance To Avoid Whitewash At Eden Gardens
Jan 23, 2017 at 1:14 PM
A formidable India won the three-match One-day International series by 2-1 after losing a thriller at Eden Gardens. England limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan has expressed his happiness while opening their account during their ongoing India tour.
“It’s been hard work in a very competitive series. Today we were rewarded for our persistent drive to win,” Morgan was quoted as saying by Deccan Chronicle.
After dismal performances in recent past in five-match Test series while receiving 4-0 hammering against India, under the captaincy of Morgan, England also received the thrashing in first 50-over games in Pune and Cuttack.
Morgan, who was earlier fined for slower over rate, has stated that the top order did well to set up the early momentum before bowlers held their nerve in a dead rubber.
“The pitch was similar to an English wicket and when you lose the toss, you have to do it the hard way and the dew was very tough to deal with. Jason Roy and Sam Billings did well at the top of the order for us. The bowlers make the captain look good,” Morgan said.
Earlier, the Kolkata groundstaff had stressed that the newly-laid turf will assist bowlers and there would be equal help for the batters which proved true. The uneven bounce had made it tough for the batsman during the middle overs.
Ben Stokes, who had a nightmare last year after being smashed for four consecutive sixes by Carlos Braithwaite to clinch the Twenty20 World Cup Trophy at Eden Gardens’ returned while scoring 57 runs off 39 balls before bagging 3 crucial wickets after conceding 63 runs.
“It was a difficult time last time we came here, put it down to good captaincy from Morgan getting my overs out of the way before the end. It was difficult to start, the ball was not necessarily going through the top, but it was going a bit,” he said.
England bowlers stick to their basics to executive the plan in the final ODI of the series.
“I think because there was bounce and carry, when you hit a good length, there was something on offer. So we encouraged them to hit the wicket hard and try and extract anything in there,” Morgan added.
Kedar Jadhav almost took the game away while playing exceptionally well before perishing on a penultimate delivery of an Indian innings after scoring 90 off 75 deliveries.
Currently, England side is ranked fifth in the ICC ODI rankings with 107 points in 54 games.
“Giving a wicket that offered more, helped them and actually rewarded them for good, disciplined line and length. We were always open to what we wanted to do. The bowler had his options as well,” Morgan remarked.
However, the all-round performance from India had given England a severe beating in Pune and Cuttack.
“India outplayed us in the first two games but this win was important. You can try hard but without wins it damages the team’s confidence,” Morgan concluded.