Morgan hails win but will look at off-field policies
EOIN Morgan was reassured by England’s victory over the West Indies at The Oval but admits they still need to address their policy on player behaviour off the field.
England pulled off a morale-boosting and series-clinching win by six runs on the DLS method thanks to an unbroken sixth wicket stand of 77 between Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler.
They therefore take an unassailable 3-0 Royal London Series lead into tomorrow’s final match of the summer at the Ageas Bowl against opponents who will be minus both their captain Jason Holder and the injured Evin Lewis.
Opener Lewis hit 176 before having to retire hurt with what X-rays revealed was a hairline fracture of his right ankle, while Holder is set to fly home today to attend his uncle’s funeral.
Twenty20 captain Carlos Brathwaite is expected to join the team, which will be led in Holder’s absence by Jason Mohammed.
As for England, Morgan concedes they have a problem area to address after all-rounder Ben Stokes was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm during a night out in Bristol on Sunday — and was therefore absent here along with Alex Hales, who drove back to the west country on Tuesday to voluntarily provide further evidence to police.
“It’s never been an area of concern in the past,” said the Irishman. “We’ve always policed it ourselves, (but) it’s something we’re going to look into towards the future — in light of what’s happened — because we need to look after each other as a team.
“It’s not a case of individuals going separate ways. We all normally stick together, so we’ ll have to put something in place that doesn’t leave us in the position we are at the moment.”
Events on the pitch brought him reason to smile, however.
Moeen and Buttler carried England back above the DLS rate to 258 for five when rain arrived in the 36th over, after a clatter of wickets to Alzarri Joseph (five for 52) in their chase of 356 for five.
“I thought they dealt with it really well,” he said of England’s response to uncertain events elsewhere. “It was an extremely confident innings (from Moeen).”