Morgan laments 'bad, disappointing' day

Cricket365
September 9, 2013

Captain Eoin Morgan defended the understrength nature of England's XI, after Australia screamed to a resounding 88-run victory in Sunday's second ODI at Old Trafford in Manchester.

The hosts have rested skipper Alastair Cook, batsman Ian Bell, spinner Graeme Swann and fast bowler James Anderson for the five-match series. As many as six players with less than 25 caps each, meanwhile, featured in the weekend's team.

The Aussies were entirely commanding en route to 315 for seven on the back of captain Michael Clarke's century, after which the home side slumped to a mere 227 all out in the wake of seamer Clint McKay and left-armer Mitchell Johnson's three and two wickets respectively.

"It's certainly not short-term planning. The type of characters that they are, we expect them to deal with this particularly and bounce back soon enough, when they'll have another opportunity to do well," said Morgan.

"This was a bad day. We probably let them get 40 too many. But the batsmen are as guilty as the bowlers – we didn't perform, we didn't put their bowlers under enough pressure by building partnerships and then looking to take them on. That was disappointing."

Wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler's 75-run cameo, which spanned just balls and featured a quintet of boundaries and a trio of sixes, afforded Morgan belated consolation. Opener Kevin Pietersen's 60, Morgan's 54 and tail-ender Steven Finn's were England's only other double-figure scores.

"Seeing him perform like that was brilliant. We've seen him do that every week in a Somerset shirt. It's great to see. It was hard when you initially went in. But when you developed a partnership, you found yourself without any effort scoring at five or six an over," concluded Morgan.

The third ODI will get underway at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Wednesday. Cardiff and Southampton will host fixtures four and five on Saturday and Sunday respectively.