EOIN’S MISERY
But skipper still defiant
EOIN MORGAN insists his one-day team will not ditch their attacking approach despite the horror collapse which cost them the fourth ODI against New Zealand.
England were poised to post their third 400-plus total in three years when they reached 267-1 in the 38th over of their innings in Dunedin.
But a collapse of 6-21 saw them pegged back to 335-9 despite centuries from Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root.
Work
New Zealand chased down their target of 336 with three balls to spare, thanks to a career-best unbeaten 181 from Ross Taylor. That levelled the series at 2-2 ahead of Saturday’s decider in Christchurch.
Skipper Morgan said: “It’s not something that has happened before and is extremely disappointing because there was a lot of hard work put in to get us into that position.
“It has been a one-off. We’ve had collapses of the top order – in the first 10 overs we’ve been four or five down.
“But certainly when we’ve earned the right to push for a 370 score, we’ve JONNY’S EARLY JOY: Bairstow jumps to celebrate his classy century ® from RODNEY WHITE not had a collapse like that. Normally one of us has come off.
“If it continues to be a pattern we’ll look into it deeply. But for everybody walking off, it’s hurting deep that we’ve not been able to capitalise.”
Asked if England were guilty of being over-ambitious, Morgan said: “I’m a big fan of over-ambition. We’ve scored 400 twice.
“When two guys play out of their skin to do that, we’ve got to put the cream on the cake and cherry on top. We were miles away from it today.”
Morgan (above) also rejected talk of Bairstow and Root being let down by the rest of the order. “No, no – we win together, we lose together,” he said.
Taylor had to rely on the drinks buggy to help get across the ground to his press conference as he struggled with the thigh injury which ruled him out of the previous match.
He hopes to be fit for the weekend, and agreed his 19th ODI hundred must rank among his best.
“Being there at the end, in a win, has to be up there,” said Taylor. “We always knew we’d have to bat well but we knew it wasn’t out of our reach.” New Zealand won toss ENGLAND J Roy J Bairstow 42 J Root 138 J Buttler 102 E Morgan 0 B Stokes 5 M Ali 1 C Woakes 3 A Rashid 3 T Curran 11 M Wood 22 3 Extras 5 Total 9 wkts (50 overs) ........... Fall: 335 Bowling: NEW ZEALAND M Guptill C Munro 0 K Williamson 0 R Taylor 45 T Latham 181 C de 71 G’homme 23 H Nicholls 13 Extras 6 Total 5 wkts (49.3 overs) ........ Fall: 339 Did not bat: Bowling: Umpires: