Morgan eyes another clinical performance in final

A year ago to the day, the England football team were knocked out in the semi-final of the World Cup 2018 in Russia against Croatia.

Exactly a year later, the England cricket team more than made up for the disappointment of the football team by making it to the grand finale of the World Cup.

England beat mighty Australia Thursday at Edgbaston in Birmingham by a convincing margin of eight wickets to advance to the World Cup final, scheduled to be held Sunday at Lord’s in London, where New Zealand lie in wait. 

When queried light-heartedly Thursday as to whether the cricket team can finally bring the coveted Cup home, England captain Eoin Morgan said in the post-match press conference, “(Laughter) I wouldn't get too carried away yet. It is obviously a very exciting time for everybody and ourselves included. I think giving ourselves the opportunity for Sunday's final is brilliant. We'll be giving it everything we can in order to try and win that game.”

Morgan looked ahead to the day of reckoning Sunday with a lot of optimism.

Surely, @JofraArcher is the x-factor of @englandcricket at the moment as the young pacer has been terrorizing batsmen with hi sheer pace and bouncers throughout the tournament.https://t.co/ahHNFu9jQU#JOFRAARCHER #JOFRA #ARCHER #ENGLAND #CRICKET #ENGLANDCRICKET #CRICKETWORLDCUP

— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) July 11, 2019

“I think Sunday's not a day to shy away from, it's a day to look forward to, much like [Thursday]. We have created the opportunity to play in a World Cup final. It will be a matter of the same again trying to produce everything that we can performance-wise but enjoy the day.”

The English skipper reckoned that they are close to their perfect performance.

“I think close to. I think particularly the bowling unit. When you perform like that, you continue to take wickets, along with a little bit of luck, but we were quite persistent in the lengths that we bowled. We stuck to our plans, our plans managed to work, even when [Steve] Smith and [Alex] Carey started to dominate and grow in the partnership they did, we found something, an opportunity,” said Morgan.

“We didn't drop a catch on Adil [Rashid], which is great, that allowed him to build momentum and confidence and he bowled brilliantly,” he added.

2ND SEMI-FINAL

AUSTRALIA INNINGS        R    B

Warner c Bairstow b Woakes    9    11

Finch lbw b Archer        0    1

Smith run out (Buttler)    85    119

Handscomb b Woakes    4    12

Carey c sub (Vince) b Rashid    46    70

Stoinis lbw b Rashid        0    2

Maxwell c Morgan b Archer    22    23

Cummins c Root b Rashid    6    10

Starc c Buttler b Woakes    29    36

Behrendorff b Wood        1    4

Lyon not out            5    6

Extras (lb6, w10)        16

Total (49 overs)        223/10

Fall Of Wickets

1-4 (Finch), 2-10 (Warner), 3-14 (Handscomb), 4-117 (Carey), 5-118 (Stoinis), 6-157 (Maxwell), 7-166 (Cummins), 8-217 (Smith), 9-217 (Starc), 10-223 (Behrendorff)

Bowling

Woakes 8-0-20-3, Archer 10-0-32-2 (w2), Stokes 4-0-22-0, Wood 9-0-45-1 (w4), Plunkett 8-0-44-0 (w3), Rashid 10-0-54-3 (w1)

ENGLAND INNINGS        R    B

Roy c Carey b Cummins    85    65

Bairstow lbw b Starc        34    43

Root not out            49    46

Morgan not out        45    39

Extras (lb1, w12)        13

Total (32.1 overs)        226/2

Fall Of Wickets

1-124 (Bairstow), 2-147 (Roy)

Bowling

Behrendorff 8.1-2-38-0 (w1), Starc 9-0-70-1 (w3), Cummins 7-0-34-1 (w2), Lyon 5-0-49-0, Smith 1-0-21-0 (w1), Stoinis 2-0-13-0 (w1)

England won by eight wickets

MoM: Chris Woakes