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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP


February 14, 2015


Eoin Morgan


MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

Q. Eoin, you and the other boys said that England were ready for this match, ready to start playing. The result would seem and the margin of it would seem to indicate that perhaps you weren't quite as ready as you thought.
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, perhaps, which is disappointing. We did ourselves ‑‑ probably the most frustrating thing is that we made errors that we haven't been making this trip, and again, Australia played well, but we had opportunities to take the game to them, and we didn't take them.

Q. They were superior I think you'd agree in all departments today. Do you know why that is? Is it just because they are the better team?
EOIN MORGAN: I think certainly today they were the better team, and they played ‑‑ they outplayed us in every department right from the start, which is disappointing. Again, we showed glimpses of what we can do, but again, frustrating things that we've been doing for this last month let us down.

Q. What is the plan when you're bowling in those death overs, and do you think it's working?
EOIN MORGAN: There's probably about three or four, and each batsman varies. It's certainly not easy bowling at the end. The main objective is to restrict them scoring and to take wickets. Taking wickets is the ultimate. If you do that, you tend to halt momentum, and again, we're ‑‑ I think our plans were reasonably good. The execution of it I thought was poor.

Q. You made some changes to the lineup and who was doing different roles. Do you think that unsettled the team?
EOIN MORGAN: No, absolutely not. We're not a precious squad. We spoke before the tournament and said that we will have to adapt at certain stages, and we played ‑‑ we changed the balance of the side, but we played our best 11 for that balance.

Q. The familiarisation of roles is quite important, and people went from coming in at No.3 who hadn't batted there for a long time, No.6, had never batted there before, you've got a new opening bowler, Woakes, in a different position?
EOIN MORGAN: James Taylor batted probably closer to his natural position in the batting lineup than he's ever done. Batting 3 was a bit strange for him, although he did it well. Batting 5 or 6 is probably his best position, and Gary has had a fantastic maybe 12 months of test match cricket, maybe a little bit less, batting at 3, and has looked in magnificent touch since he's been here.

Q. Your own form, you said you weren't too concerned about it heading into this match. Are you more concerned about it now? How do you feel?
EOIN MORGAN: After that dismissal, I don't think so, no. I toe end a pull which probably held up a little bit in the pitch, no way of getting out and getting naught, but no.

Q. Can you run us through what you understand what happened at the end there with the run out?
EOIN MORGAN: We're still waiting on clarity. We're going to speak to metro free. In fact, I've come straight from shaking hands, so again, my understanding, I can't say it, because again, it can't be ‑‑ I'm not sure if it's right is the best way to say it, so we're waiting on clarity.

Q. Geoff Boycott has been critical of you and the team recently. I imagine that's fairly unhelpful at this time.
EOIN MORGAN: Geoffrey tends to be critical 24/7, and I actually don't know if people ‑‑ well, certainly people within the team, it falls on deaf ears.

Q. When you go through an experience like that, obviously you talked about being outplayed. It wasn't a be‑all‑and‑end‑all game, but to come back or regroup, you're still quite new to the job, how do you see that coming to you?
EOIN MORGAN: Well, again, it's not a big challenge. We said the first two games of the tournament would be the toughest in our group, and to come out of them with results would give us huge confidence, and we're still at that stage. We're still focusing on getting to the quarterfinals, and again, building the further we get into the tournament. As regards to Friday, we'll regroup, assess what we've done wrong and can improve on before then, but certainly first protocol is to turn to senior players and ask them to lead from the front.

Q. In five days you crossed the season (inaudible) and the host, so any change in strategy do you think?
EOIN MORGAN: I'm hoping there will be a higher level of skill produced. I think our strategies are pretty solid and pretty basic, as are everybody's. There's no magic formula. It's a matter of going out and executing those plans.

Q. Just a little bit more on senior players, is that of particular frustration that you've had a little bit of upheaval coming into this tournament, and I guess you want your senior players to stand up and take ownership and leadership of that team?
EOIN MORGAN: I don't think it's been upheaval. I think every game you want your senior players to lead from the front, especially when you play against a side who have been on a bit of a run. So again, Friday will be no different.

Q. And just how difficult will it be to lift the team after another defeat?
EOIN MORGAN: Again, the guys are quite optimistic about things in the group stage. As I said earlier, our first two games are the toughest in the group, so again, we'll have to be reasonably close to our best or producing our best as individuals to beat these sides.

Q. When you have a bad run like you're going through at the moment, do you have to convince yourself that you're not out of form? Do you mentally have to think to yourself I'm not okay here?
EOIN MORGAN: I think I'm quite honest with things normally, and if I was ‑‑ I'm a nick‑off candidate massively, and if I was nicking every ball that I got, I'd be worried, but I'm not, I'm getting out in different ways. Again, moving forward I'll be trying to spend as much time in the middle as possible.

Q. Does that give you confidence you can come through this thing because obviously your form is so vital if England are going to have a good World Cup?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, absolutely, it does give me confidence. As I said, I'd be really worried about the last four dismissals had been nick‑offs or forming some sort of pattern.

Q. You talk about execution. Just how much sort of, I guess, a problem your fielding was today, and drop catches and just chances going begging, I guess, and especially compared to how the Australians fielded?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I mean, at the risk of repeating myself, the first question I'll relate back to that, things we've been doing well for this last month let us down today, and again, we got two chances really early, which is frustrating more than anything else.

Q. Just a bit more on James's innings. He showed some real fight there. He's had a good month here in Australia. What did you actually think of his knock today in the circumstances that he found himself in, too?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, he was outstanding. Typical James Taylor. He got himself in, scored in different areas, and managed to take advantage of being in, and again, these are qualities we're looking for, guys who can not only get 60 or 40, guys who can go on and potentially win a game for us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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