All-round thumping
MORGAN STILL POSITIVE DESPITE INDIA DOMINATING WITH BAT AND BALL
EOIN MORGAN insisted that England’s T20 Indian odyssey would still be worth its weight in gold despite the 3-2 series reverse.
England lost by 36 runs in the final deciding game of the series. India’s experienced duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli set the tone and piled on the runs before their wily leader of the attack, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, made the difference with the ball.
None of England’s bowlers had a good day at the office as India took them for a whopping 224-2 on a beauty of a batting surface.
But skipper Morgan reckons he will leave India with enough positives ahead of the T20 World Cup there later in the year to make having his fullstrength squad available to him well worth it. “We’re looking to grow and get better regardless of the result,” said Morgan. “India outplayed us in the big moments, but we’ve played some good cricket today and throughout the series so there are a lot of positives for us to build on.
“The huge pluses for us are the powerplay bowling bar today. That has been excellent and Adil Rashid has taken on a new role with the new ball and he’s taken it in his stride and created chances.
“India are running hot and our middle order didn’t quite fire in the series, but we’ve got a good record chasing and today just wasn’t our day.”
Morgan is right that his bowlers had been effective in the first four matches, but there are concerns over Jofra Archer’s ongoing elbow injury that may even keep him out of the IPL next month.
Morgan added: “We’re not quite sure about Jof just yet, we need to see how he pulls up. He’s had a progressive injury that has become worse and does need attention. It will be over to our medical team to make a decision that will be the best for us in the long-term.” England’s batting usually steps up in games like this and during Dawid Malan and Jos Buttler’s partnership of 130 in less than 13 overs that’s what was likely, but once the latter fell to
Kumar for 52, the innings went nowhere.
Buttler was riled by a Kohli comment as he walked off and motioned to return to remonstrate with India’s skipper before the umpires stepped in. It wasn’t just Buttler who was rattled, though, as England lost another three wickets for two runs and from there were lost.
Malan’s 68 was a welcome return to form after a lean series, and it made him the fastest man to reach 1,000 international T20 runs in 24 matches.
He might be the No.1 batsman but Chris Jordan has a good claim to the No.1 fielder title after helping dismiss Suryakumar Yadav for a brisk 32.
Jason Roy was left holding the ball in a fit of laughter after watching Jordan sprint the boundary’s edge to take a one-handed catch (above) before tossing the ball to his team-mate as he veered over the rope.