Monday 4 April 2016 08:29, UK
Eoin Morgan said Ben Stokes was not to blame after England's heart-breaking defeat to the West Indies in the World Twenty20 final.
The Windies needed 19 to win going into the last over, bowled by Stokes, who had been brilliant as England's death bowler during the tournament.
But the England all-rounder strayed with his direction and length, and Carlos Brathwaite smashed him for four consecutive sixes to win an extraordinary game by four wickets with two balls to spare.
But Morgan said the blame for the defeat lay not with Stokes or his fellow bowlers, but the batsmen who had mustered just 155-9 on a cracking batting strip Kolkata's Eden Gardens.
Asked how Stokes was, Eoin Morgan said: "He's good - it's not his fault. We're all in this together. We have been since the start. We enjoy our wins and we suffer with all our losses. The pain will be shared tonight.
"It's probably not where we lost the game. We didn't have enough runs on the board if we are brutally honest. On a really good batting surface we should have put what was par - 180 or 190 - on the board.
"(But) I felt at the halfway stage, with the character that we had in the changing room and the wicket-taking options we were certainly in the game.
"There was plenty of belief there. We put ourselves in a position to win the game. But today wasn't our day.
"I'd like to congratulate (West Indies captain) Darren (Sammy) and his team. Today they deserved the game, they played it better than us. Certainly today, huge highs - and huge lows."
England got off to a disastrous start, losing Jason Roy second ball, bowled for a duck by spinner Samuel Badree, who returned brilliant figures of 2-16 from his four overs.
He also had Morgan caught at slip for just five, while Roy's fellow opener Alex Hales fell for one, leaving England limping on 23-3 early on. Jos Buttler (36) and in particular Joe Root (54) repaired the damage, but Morgan was disappointed with the way the top order dealt with Badree.
"He is a fantastic bowler but we didn't play him very well at all," he said. "The rebuilding of that allowed us to put something on the board. The bowlers, to get us to the stage we were at going into the 20th over, were brilliant."
Morgan says that despite the defeat, the future is bright for his young team.
"I'm so proud of everyone in the squad," he said. "They have shown an immense amount of character throughout the tournament.
"We haven't done enough to win it. But certainly we've put ourselves in a good position.
"I truly believe this is the start of something special. Looking into the future, we have a huge amount of talent to work with."
