England will ‘stay true’ after Pakistan woe

ENGLAND captain Eoin Morgan insisted his side would stay true to their attacking style after an eight-wicket Champions Trophy semifinal thrashing by Pakistan.

Wednesday’s loss in Cardiff means England’s wait for a first major ICC one-day international tournament triumph will continue until at least 2019 – when they stage the next World Cup.

Since their woeful first-round exit at the 2015 edition, England had won plaudits for the dynamic way they had reinvented themselves as a “white ball” side and they went into the match having won 11 of t heir prev ious 12 ODIs.

They were also the only team in the eight-nation Champions Trophy to have won all three of their group games.

But they failed to come to terms with batting on a used pitch after Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss.

England collapsed to 211 a ll out, wit h no batsman making a f i f t y i n a n i n n i n g s where they could not manage a single si x. Even usually big-hitting allrounder Ben Stokes – fresh from an unbeaten century against Australia at Edgbaston – took 64 b balls to make a 34 that, re remarkably, did not i n c l u d e a s o l i t a r y bou boundary. P a k i s t a n t h e n crui cruised to their victory targe target, finishing on 215 for twot with a massive 77 balls to spare. But Morgan (pictu tured, AFP) promisedi se lessons wou ld be learntle for t wo years’ time.time

“One of the huge contributing factors towards topping our table and playing very good cricket in the group stages is that we’ve stayed true to what we believe in and what’s worked for us the last couple of years, and I think that’s the continued formula for the future,” the Middlesex batsman told reporters.

“I think it will have to evolve in whatever manner the game does over the next two years in the lead-in to the World Cup, but certainly I think we’re moving in the right direction.

“One of the things about knockout cricket is that you have to adapt to conditions,” the 30-year-old former Ireland star added.

“It’s a big challenge jumping from venue to venue but we’re going to have to do that with the World Cup so it’s important for us to go through games like today for our experience.”

Morgan, however, did give cred it to Pa k ista n for t hei r v ictor y by say ing: “I t hought t he y bow le d r e a l l y wel l . They adjusted to conditions extremely well.”

Pakistan meet the winners of yesterday’s other semifinal between India and Bangladesh in the final at The Oval in London on Sunday at 4:30pm Cambodian time.