Morgan hails ‘unbelievable’ performance by Root

Eoin Morgan said he was always confident his batsmen could chase down what looked like a challenging target following England’s eight-wicket win over Bangladesh at The Oval.

Tamim Iqbal’s innings of 128 from 142 deliveries was the foundation for Bangladesh’s total of 305-6, but England eased home with 16 balls remaining thanks to a career-best 133* from Joe Root, an aggressive 95 from Alex Hales and Morgan’s unbeaten 75.

“At the half-way mark we talked about putting a couple of partnerships together or one guy going on and getting a big score and obviously we did that pretty well today,” said Morgan. “Alex continued his form, Joe was unbelievable as usual and it was nice for me to get some runs as well.”

England sprung a surprise by opting to pick Jake Ball, the right-arm seamer, ahead of the leg-spinner Adil Rashid and Morgan explained the selection was based on the opposition. “We felt that playing against Bangladesh they probably would have preferred to play against a lot more spin so that contributed to how we wanted to balance the side. Their top three batters are lefties and the possibility of getting Joe or Mo [Ali] on early was an option.”

Root appeared to be suffering with a calf injury in the latter part of his innings but Morgan expects him to be fit for Tuesday’s encounter with New Zealand in Cardiff. “Joe is alright, he wasn’t in extreme pain, it was manageable. So given that we have four days between now and the next game, hopefully he will rest up well and be fully fit.”

Root was relaxed about the calf injury, preferring to focus on the serenity he and Morgan both felt when batting together. “That calm feeling, it’s a really good place to be when you’re chasing a score of 300-plus. I think it’s a testament to how far we’ve come as a team. I thought Halesy [Alex Hales] played exceptionally well and then Morgs [Eoin Morgan] came in, as cold as ice, as he always is. It just makes things feel really calm out in the middle.”

With his tenth ODI century Root moved alongside Morgan himself. Only Marcus Trescothick is now ahead of them in the all-time list of English ODI century-makers.

“The most pleasing thing about it was that it’s come in a major tournament. You always want to contribute to England wins but when they come in the ICC Champions Trophy they definitely mean a lot more.”

Morgan also gave a strong vote of confidence to opener Jason Roy, who was dismissed for one, his fourth successive single-figure score, to a superb catch by Mustafizur Rahman at short-leg.

“I thought he was terribly unlucky today,” said Morgan. “You can get out in that sort of fashion when you’re short on runs. But certainly we believe him.

“With the batting, part of the freedom in which we’re able to play with is backed up by selection. You can’t ask guys to go out and play positive cricket and whack it everywhere, with a high-risk element, and then drop them as soon as they’re lacking runs. In previous teams that has happened. We don’t want it to happen. We want to reinforce confidence so the guys can make 300 an easy score to get by playing really positive cricket. Contributing to that as a captain, coach or selector is by backing your own players up.”

Meanwhile Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh skipper, was in philosophical mood, conceding that his team were “20 or 30 runs short” of a truly competitive total that would have stretched England’s top-order.

Bangladesh selected a batting-heavy side, with Mahmudullah, the scourge of England in the 2015 ICC World Cup, down at No. 7.

“Yes, we could have picked one more bowler,” Mortaza said. “But the sense was that we wanted to give our batters an extra bit of freedom, so they could score a little bit better.”

The plan was only a qualified success. Despite going into the final six overs with eight wickets in hand and Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim both well set, the anticipated blitzkrieg never materialised, as both fell in successive balls. England then squeezed the middle-order to the extent that Bangladesh only managed 46 runs from the final 36 balls. “With eight wickets in hand we were in a great position to score 330-340,” said Mortaza. “But we lost too many wickets in the late overs, and no one could go through. We were 20 or 30 runs short in the end, especially on that wicket.”

A feisty affair that had its flashpoints, the most noteworthy came in the 36th over when Tamim Iqbal ran in from long-on to claim a catch off the bat of Morgan. Replays suggested that the ball had been grassed, yet while Mortaza conceded that Tamim “was totally confident that it was a catch”, he stressed that there were no complaints about the third umpire’s decision.