Morgan: We failed to adapt
England captain Eoin Morgan said a failure to adapt to conditions cost his team dear after an emphatic defeat to Pakistan at Cardiff.
The hosts were in a solid position at 128-2 after being put into bat but lost a steady flow of wickets and were never able to pick up the scoring rate on a slow deck, eventually being dismissed for 211 – a target Pakistan knocked off with a minimum of fuss in 37.1 overs, two wickets down.
“We left ourselves short today adapting to conditions,” said Morgan. “It's a big frustration because I think we've played some great cricket in this tournament, and we weren't anywhere close to it today. Fair credit to Pakistan. They played brilliantly.”
Morgan accepted his batsmen struggled to come to terms with a wicket which Pakistan had played on against Sri Lanka two days previously. This was exemplified by the innings of Ben Stokes, who battled his way to 34 from 64 deliveries and failed to register a boundary. Joe Root, who has been in such sparkling form of late, was also not at his most fluent, hitting just two fours in his 56-ball 46.
“I don't think there was any home advantage,” Morgan said of the wicket. “We knew that we were going to play on a used wicket at some stage in this tournament, and we found out the other day that today was going to be on a used wicket. And having watched the game against Sri Lanka, we actually didn't think it was that bad. But certainly today it was. Coming from Edgbaston, it was obviously a big jump in pace and bounce and too much of an ask for us to adjust to.
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“I thought they bowled really well. They adjusted to conditions extremely well, and the wicket was obviously slow and low, and hard to get away to start with. Every partnership we had started behind the rate, which put us under the pump a little bit, and none of our batsmen seemed to get away.”
England came into the match as strong favourites having been the only team to win all three of its group matches but Morgan insisted there was no overconfidence within the group and that his team had simply been outplayed by the better side on the day.
“We certainly weren’t overconfident. We played against some really good sides recently, and we've managed to beat them, but that hasn't gone to our heads at all. I think going into today's game, knowing that we were going to play on a used wicket, potentially brought Pakistan's game closer to their home. So it was a big challenge and one that was too far for us.”
Despite the loss Morgan believes his team are in good shape ahead of the 2019 ICC World Cup in England and that the experience, however chastening, will stand them in good stead in future.
“One of the huge contributing factors towards topping our table and playing very good cricket in the group stages is that we've stayed true to what we believe in and what's worked for us the last couple of years, and I think that's the continued formula for the future.
“It will have to evolve in whatever manner the game does over the next two years in the lead-in to the World Cup, but we're moving in the right direction.”