Friday 20 January 2017 06:52, UK
Nasser Hussain insists England put together a near-flawless run chase despite falling to a 15-run defeat in the second ODI against India.
Eoin Morgan hit a superb century while Jason Roy (82), Moeen Ali (55) and Joe Root (54) all made fifties as England threatened to chase down 381 for victory.
Ultimately, they came up short with Morgan's run out in the penultimate over proving costly but Hussain had only praise for the tourists' batsmen.
"An absolutely amazing run chase and it shows why England should chase," he told Sky Sports. "They hardly did anything wrong with the bat, you can have no complaints about that batting.
"They almost played the perfect run chase, up until about four balls to go they could still have done it. Even the run out of Eoin Morgan, if that ball had gone anywhere else, Morgan would have been on strike. You cannot complain about this England batting line-up."
It was the bowling in the final overs of each innings that proved the difference, Hussain argued, with England failing to execute their yorkers as Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni went on the attack.
"The spinners bowled well for India, you could argue that," he added. "But the game was won and lost in the death bowling. England went for 120 plus in the last 10 overs, India didn't. Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar got it spot on in the last few overs.
"They went for boundaries but Kumar, in that last over, nailed four or five of his yorkers and England just couldn't do that.
"So, it was a magnificent effort from the batsmen but work to do in the bowling department. But we knew that before a ball went down in this series."
With the Champions Trophy to come in the summer, Hussain also believes that Morgan's century was of great importance following questions over whether he was still the right man to lead the England white-ball side.
"Even though they lost today that was a very important hundred for England in white-ball cricket because that will put that to bed," Hussain said.
"Even though they've lost a series, they are a very good one-day side and they need to stop worrying about Morgan and start looking at their bowling attack and what they can do with it to save them the 15 runs that cost them the game today."
Watch the third and final ODI between India and England from 7.30am on Sunday, Sky Sports 2.
