England on the up — Morgan

ENGLAND can book their Champions Tr o p h y semi-final berth early if they beat New Zealand in Cardiff — and Eoin Morgan i s confident they have the firepower and self-belief to do so.

The England captain admits it was “men against boys” when England were trounced by the Kiwis in their last meeting at a global one-day international tournament.

But it did not take England long to consign that miserable experience to history, responding to the eightwicket defeat in Wellington in February 2015 by reinventing themselves in time to beat New Zealand 3-2 at home only three months later.

Morgan’s England have since sustained their improvement — and as he plotted further consolidation today, he reflected just briefly on New Zealand’s superiority at the last World Cup.

“They were one of the favourites going into the tournament and proved that against us t hat day i n Wellington,” said Morgan.

“It was sort of men against boys.

“But I think it’s completely different now — two years down the line.

“We’ve got a completely new team, pretty much.”

This summer’s global tournament is taking place in unsettling ti mes, of course, after two terrorist attacks which have claimed 29 lives in under two weeks.

Morgan is satisfied, though, that his team is at ease with the i ncreased security measures prescribed by the International Cricket Council — and will take the field uncompromised by distractions.

“I think we can,” he said, r e fe r e n c i n g E n g l a n d ’s victory over South Africa in Leeds two days after the first attack at the Manchester Arena last month.

England captain Eoin Morgan.