Leeds, June 22 (IANS) England captain Eoin Morgan urged his team to turn things around in their next match at the 2019 ICC World Cup after their shock defeat to Sri Lanka. “It is a tournament where you need to adjust and turn things around,” said Morgan.
“Naturally as a team we tend to come back strongly, that is our strong point. This is a long tournament and we have huge opportunities in every game. We have the chance to bounce back,” he said.
England restricted Sri Lanka 232/9 and it was expected that their mighty batting lineup, which has accounted for four of the five occasions that a team has scored over 400 runs in an innings since the 2015 World Cup, will chase it down comfortably. However, the Sri Lankan bowlers led by veteran Lasith Malinga never allowed England to get into a good flow and ended up dismissing them for 212.
Morgan admitted that the target was achievable. “I thought we were really good with the bowl, adapted to the conditions and we restricted Sri Lanka to a chaseable total. But a lack of partnerships cost us the game. Couple of individual performances almost took us over the line,” he said.
England’s next match is against Australia at Lord’s. “This is a long tournament and we have huge opportunities in every game. We have the chance to bounce back. We have Australia next, it is one of those fixtures which you look first in the fixture list before the start of the tournament. It is always very exciting playing them at the home of cricket,” said Morgan
–IANS
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