Final failure fires Morgan
ENGLAND SKIPPER’S LESSON
EOIN MORGAN has revealed he spent months coming to terms with England’s stunning defeat by West Indies in the last T20 World Cup final.
And the England captain wants to use the pain of that crushing loss to drive him to go one better this time, and conquer the world again in the white-ball game.
Morgan and his team-mates were left shattered and broken in 2016 when Carlos Brathwaite smashed 24 runs off Ben Stokes in the final over, including four consecutive sixes, to snatch victory in Kolkata. But leading England to World Cup glory in the 50-over format at Lord’s in 2019 helped Morgan make amends.
England begin their Super 12s campaign against West Indies in Dubai on Saturday and Morgan said: “I probably thought about what happened for about six or seven months afterwards, to try to understand it.
“It was one of the most incredible sporting events in isolation that you’ll ever watch. It’s not something that you can just let run off your back, it’s something that you need to understand and learn from. “For a guy to come in and hit four consecutive sixes to win the game for his team is just an incredible feat, that’s the way I’ve understood it. It’s never been done before. There are always cornerstones of motivation to try and drive success, and they normally stem from failure.” Morgan, who has revealed England will join West Indies in taking a knee before their opening showdown, is relishing the chance to lead his side’s bid to become the first country to be World Cup holders in both white-ball formats. He said: “It would be unbelievably special if we manage to do it. The group we’ve had together for the last five or six years, alongside new, really talented and young guys coming through that have really made a name for themselves, makes the composition of the squad extremely strong.”
❑ SCOTLAND are one win away from winning Group B and reaching the Super 12s of the T20 World Cup after a 17-run victory over Papua New Guinea. Richie Berrington hit 70 off 49 balls, then Josh Davey took 4-18 to derail PNG’s chase. The Scots play co-hosts Oman tomorrow.