Eoin Morgan says England defeat in second T20I is 'good opportunity' for youngsters
Watch the third T20 international between New Zealand and England live on Sky Sports Cricket from 12.30am on Tuesday
Monday 4 November 2019 07:21, UK
Eoin Morgan says England's disappointing defeat in the second T20 international against New Zealand on Sunday is a "good opportunity" for the young players in the side.
England have given T20 debuts to Sam Curran, Pat Brown, Lewis Gregory and Saqib Mahmood already on this tour, and while they convincingly won the series opener in Christchurch, the second game in Wellington did not go to plan.
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England lost by 21 runs after conceding a score of 176-8 to the hosts, but Morgan sees the setback as an important lesson for his young side.
"We have to make mistakes," a typically pragmatic Morgan said after the defeat. "If guys come in and smash it from the start and really find international cricket easy, I don't think that's a great opportunity given to guys.
"We want to see guys being pegged back and how they react from there. Chances will continue to come and opportunities will continue to come regardless of the result."
Morgan did, however, bemoan a poor fielding effort from his team which saw five catches grounded - James Vince putting down two pretty simple chances and one extremely difficult one, Dawid Malan grounding another easy effort and wicketkeeper Sam Billings unable to cling on to a sharp opportunity over his head.
"When you drop that amount of catches it's not a great reflection on the performance and the levels of fielding that we aspire to be," said Morgan. "There were a couple of catches that went in the sun which made it look a lot worse but as regards our standard catches, we expect more.
"I think it's more of an attitude thing because there's such a short turnaround, the natural default of any player is to step back and not commit to a 50-50 chance or their mindset changes to go back in their shell.
"That's not what we want, we want guys continuing to attack the ball, find themselves in hot spots if they're good enough and if they drop catches, they drop catches. That's the nature of it."
One of the bright spots for England in defeat was the bowling of Chris Jordan, who returned impressive figures of 3-23 from his four overs to move up to second on England's all-time list of T20 wicket-takers, passing Graeme Swann's 51 and sitting 13 behind Stuart Broad's 65 scalps. He also fired 36 from 19 deliveries with the bat.
"He [Jordan] was exceptional," added Morgan. "One of the reasons we combine these new guys with experienced players is to have them out on the field doing what they do.
"Sometimes you're reiterating to bowlers or to fielders what they're trying to do, and when they come and display it, it's almost easier visually to see it in their heads.
"Having CJ out there with his experience and his execution is outstanding. He's one of the best."
England's defeat in Wellington sees the five-match series squared with three to play, starting with Tuesday's third T20I in Nelson.
Watch England's third T20I against New Zealand, live from 12.30am on Tuesday on Sky Sports Cricket.
