Eoin Morgan says England's wins over New Zealand show they can beat any team
Wednesday 24 June 2015 10:51, UK
Captain Eoin Morgan says the way England have performed against New Zealand suggests they can be 'dangerous' against Australia later this summer.
Having defeated the tourists 3-2 in the one-day series, England produced another fine limited overs display at Old Trafford on Tuesday, comfortably defeating the Black Caps by 56 runs in a one-off T20 international as Joe Root led the way with 68.
England were hugely disappointing at the 50-over World Cup earlier this year, but they played in a far more enterprising manner in the one-day series against New Zealand and continued in that vein here.
Morgan said: "Now we have won this game and the ODI series it reinforces to the guys that, it might not always come off, but we can beat the best in the world in any game of cricket. Coming out and playing in the same fashion that we've sort of grown accustomed to over the last few one day internationals was pleasing
"Joe Root, his hunger and determination to cash in as much as he can when he's in form, is a great example to set in our changing room.
"It felt a million miles away at the World Cup because we were so far off the mark but things have turned around pretty quickly.
"Everybody within the squad has bought into everything that we want to be about as a side, the mindset we want to set, particularly with the bat. We've continued to churn out runs at a solid rate, which we haven't done in the past.
"Considering the average age in the group is 24, 25, it makes it very exciting moving down the line. We probably haven't seen the best of our squad yet. We've seen some outstanding individual performances - I can't fault Joe Root and Jos Buttler in the way they've led things in the one day series."
England scored 191-7 and then bowled New Zealand out for 135 in the 16th over, despite Kane Williamson's 57, and Morgan said England are now looking forward to the Ashes with relish.
"It's easier now to take on Australia, given that playing in that way wins us games against one of the best sides in the world," he said.
"Having played like we have here, it reinforces to the guys in the changing room that, when we come off, we can be dangerous.
"The spirit of this series has been outstanding. We have been trying to emulate New Zealand and we've come close but it's important not to get carried away. It's a start.
"I certainly think we've gone a long way to winning back the public but we have a lot more to give and it's set up so well now for the Ashes."
New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum praised England but felt his side had not quite played to their best.
He said: "Some of our batting was pretty amateurish to be honest. We got ourselves in a good position and we should have been able to chase down their total.
"Credit to England, they put us under pressure. They looked for wickets, as they have done throughout the series, and they were able to get hold of them, and our application wasn't quite right.
"Because of the high-scoring nature of the series we've just played I felt that 190-odd was probably par, so I wasn't unhappy at half-time.
"We got off to a reasonable start but we weren't able to kick on and build more partnerships as the innings progressed.
"It would have been nice to have been able to bat with Kane for a bit longer and to have been able to take the game a bit deeper and then I think obviously we'd have got a lot closer than we did.
"But credit to England, they've played some outstanding cricket throughout the summer and we wish them well for what they've got coming up."
Man of the match Root said: "I thought that was a good score. We went looking for wickets and it was hard for them to chase it down.
"We need to keep developing as a side, so we need to make sure we keep moving forwards.
"It's hard to explain, everyone has gone out this summer with a freedom and it's really refreshing to see everyone commit to it and absolutely go for it."
