BRILLIANT BOWLERS SEAL SEMI-FINAL SLOT
ENGLAND CAPTAIN MORGAN THANKFUL FOR HIS ATTACK AS HOSTS SEE OFF NEW ZEALAND
Eoin Morgan was grateful to England’s “brilliant” bowling attack after the hosts’ 87run win over New Zealand ensured they will qualify for the Champions Trophy semi-finals as Group A tabletoppers.
Mark Wood and Jake Ball made the most important breakthroughs yesterday, and Liam Plunkett – who finished with 4-55 – and Adil Rashid cashed in too as England defended a total of 310 all out.
Wood returned at the 30-over stage of New Zealand’s run chase in Cardiff to take the critical wicket of Kane Williamson for 87.
Ball, who had already bowled opener Luke Ronchi for a golden duck, then saw off the visiting captain’s third-wicket partner Ross Taylor to begin the Kiwis’ terminal slide from 158-2 to 223 all out – an outcome which ensures England will be back at the same venue for their semi-final next Wednesday.
Half-centuries from Joe Root (64), Jos Buttler (61 not out) and Alex Hales (56) proved enough – although Morgan admitted he was far from sure they would after England were bowled out in 49.3 overs.
Morgan agrees their tournament is going very well so far, but added: “If you had asked me that at the halfway stage, I probably would have said it wasn’t.
“We were probably 10 or 15 below par – given that 320 is probably a par score regardless of the game we’re playing in these days.”
It therefore needed Wood and Co to step up, and Morgan said: “Guys like him are so valuable to the team – and you can’t leave any of our bowlers out.
“They did an outstanding job. They were truly the highlight of the day.
“Our batting performance was probably par or below par – so pretty average.
“The bowlers, as a collective unit, were brilliant.”
England will finish group winners whatever the outcome of their final match against Australia at Edgbaston on Saturday – when a win over their Ashes rivals is very likely to eliminate their oldest adversaries.
Morgan confirmed that England will not be letting up at the weekend.
“If we’re truly going to be contenders for this tournament, we need to beat the best teams – and Australia are one of the best teams,” he said
“They always are, going into a white-ball tournament. They seem to produce limited-overs cricketers at will. So to go into a game like that with no other attitude than winning is very important to us.”
To that end, he will be instructing his batsmen to stay true to the attacking approach which has brought them a 300-plus total in half of their 46 matches since the last World Cup.
They did not quite click on this occasion, but still topped that benchmark.
“I thought we looked like we were getting about 340 at stages but fell away towards the end – which is disappointing,” said Morgan.
“But the fact we’re still trying to win games with the bat, regardless of the situation that we’re in, I think is testament to the team.
“We’re staying true to what we believe in and what we’ve achieved over the last couple of years.”