Morgan happy that players ‘expressed themselves’

2015 World Cup

Cricket365
February 24, 2015

England captain Eoin Morgan was understandably delighted with his side's 119-run win over Scotland on Monday, finally getting some points on the board after a poor first two matches at the World Cup.

England recorded 303/8 in their 50 overs, with Moeen Ali and Ian Bell putting on 172 for the first wicket. Scotland were then all out for 184, with only Stuart Broad failing to take a wicket.

Morgan said after the game: "I'm delighted with today's performance, today we played not within ourselves but expressed ourselves little bit, which was good to see.

"The two openers were exceptional and ideally we would have liked to kick on without stuttering. But we recovered really well to a good score. We are really flexible in our batting, today was all about a win."

Of his own effort, making 46 after a run of poor form, he added: "It's nice to get some runs under my bat."

After being destroyed by New Zealand, Morgan was happy with the way his bowlers found their rhythms again, especially Steve Finn, who had been smashed about by Brendon McCullum. He took three wickets against the Scots.

The skipper continued: "I thought our bowlers were really good, standout from Finn and Broady got rewarded. Moeen was brilliant chipping in with his 10 overs.

"It's great to have Anderson and Broad back at full strength, their combination works and that's a massive plus for us.

As for Moeen, who had struggled in the first two games, he was pleased to get a bit of confidence back and said he was happy to get his mind back in the right frame after being forced to focus early on in the knock.

Moeen said of his 128: "It was nice to spend time in the middle and get through first 10 overs. It was not an easy pitch to start, it takes a bit of time to play some shots but we did well to score over 300.

"At one time I thought of maybe 330-340 but it was not easy to pitch and at least we got 300. It's nice to get a bit of form before the next match and hopefully I can continue it.

"Thank god for winning the game and hopefully we can win the next three in a row."

Of his own bowling, despite Morgan's praise for his 2/47, Moeen added: "I don't think I bowled that well today, I haven't bowled for a couple of weeks in matches now."