We share the pain, we share the success: Morgan

“I can’t fault anything we did with the ball today, we were exceptional. There was a tremendous amount of belief at the halfway stage that we’d put a score on the board (155 for 9) and we were right in the game. But we let ourselves down tremendously with the bat, I thought we were terrible, probably 40 short, it was a 180-190 wicket. I thought both sides let themselves down with the bat but in the World Cup, you make what you can of it.”

While Morgan might not have anticipated four straight sixes under pressure to take the trophy away from his team, he was quick to point out that it was not impossible, as the preceding events had just showed. “It’s possible, it just happened,” he said, somehow summoning a pained smile. “Cricket can be a cruel game. I don’t think the game is ever gone. I think the physical attributes to clear the boundary, as a batsman you never feel far away.

“We did extremely well with the ball, at no stage did West Indies get ahead of where we’d have liked them to be. In fact, it was going the other way. Adil (Rashid), (Liam) Plunkett, (Chris) Jordan, (David) Willey at the start, then coming back for two wickets was outstanding. I don’t think we felt rushed at all with the ball, we had the crowd on our side and they responded to us, which was a really good thing for us. Maybe with the bat a few nerves around, a few mistakes. Alex Hales very unlucky (caught at fine-leg inside the circle in the second over), but apart from that, we didn’t play well.”

One of those that did play well with the bat was Joe Root, the No. 3 who made a sparkling half-century that was in keeping with his reputation as one of the best batsmen in the world. “Joe is an incredibly talented cricketer,” Morgan agreed. “He keeps things incredibly simple, he has great temperament, he is able to adapt to any situation. Today, he controlled himself brilliantly while we were losing wickets.”