WE WERE TERRIBLE
Morgan pulls no punches as England win but limp out
It DOES not matter that tom Curran held his nerve at the end to earn England their first win of this curious twenty20 tri-series. By then the pressure was off and it was too late to correct the damage that had been done.
this two-run victory was not enough to stop New Zealand progressing to Wednesday’s final against Australia in Auckland on net run-rate.
England were not good enough in all four of their short-form matches. And captain Eoin Morgan offered no excuses for a miserable fortnight in a tournament with little or no context that has been added to a schedule that is creaking with so many matches.
‘We have absolutely no right to be in the final,’ admitted Morgan, who returned to the side and form with an unbeaten 80 off 46 balls in England’s 194 for seven.
‘We were terrible in the tri-series until today. Yes, we did enough to win but it wasn’t enough to go through. It doesn’t feel like a win. We knew 174 was the target to restrict them to so as soon as that had gone heads went down.’
this has always felt like a tournament too far, with England struggling to replicate the form that saw them emphatically win the one-day series in Australia.
And coach trevor Bayliss caused a few raised eyebrows with his post-match verdict when talking to Sky. ‘I haven’t changed my opinion,’ said Bayliss. ‘I wouldn’t play t20 internationals. If you want to play a World twenty20 every four years then maybe get the teams together six months out and let them play some t20 cricket but I’d just let the franchises play.’
It is an interesting argument but it is one that is likely to see the Australian cast in the role of King Canute trying to hold back the tide. Instead, he might consider where England have gone so badly wrong, at least here.
they have been dismal, playing more like an old- fashioned England limited-overs side rather than the team who have taken the 50-over game by storm to the extent that they are now favourites for next year’s World Cup.
‘It’s hard to pinpoint,’ said Morgan when asked why England, who lost their first three matches of this tournament, have been so bad in t20 cricket. ‘We just haven’t been good enough this series and have been caught on the hop, particularly against Australia.’
England were certainly better here at Seddon Park. thanks to Dawid Malan, the success story of this series, with his fourth halfcentury in his first five twenty20 internationals, they had the base for a decent score.
then Morgan, who has started to look like the weak link in this batting line-up, showed he can still be the white-ball ‘freak’ of old by hitting six sixes in what he later described as ‘probably a par score’. But England knew they had to restrict New Zealand to 20 runs fewer than they scored.
that equation effectively went out of the window when they made a truly awful start to New Zealand’s reply with the ball.
Colin Munro smashed 57 off 21 balls with seven sixes as England’s seamers consistently aimed at the left-hander’s legs and saw the ball disappear over the ropes. Morgan blamed their inaccuracy on the dew that stopped England employing their variations but the captain erred in not bringing on leg- spinner Adil Rashid in the power-play.
By the time Rashid and Liam Dawson were introduced England’s task had become a thankless one and even though the spinners, including the parttime Malan, did enough to enable Curran, conceding nine runs off the last over when New Zealand needed 12 for victory, to see them home it was in a lost cause.
Now England will lick their wounds and get ready for a fivematch one- day series against New Zealand, starting back here on Sunday. And then Ben Stokes, who was watching yesterday having just arrived in the country, could well have a role to play.
His reintroduction, whatever the rights and wrongs of him being here while still awaiting a Crown Court case on a charge of affray, cannot come soon enough for England.