‘I don't set barriers’

Asked if he had expected at the start that England will qualify for the semi-finals, Morgan said: “I don’t expect a great deal to be honest. I don’t set expectations, barriers or limitations. It’s all about getting the best out of what we have and at the moment and we seem to be doing that. If we do that from here on in, we put ourselves in really good position.” 

Morgan is happy that the T20 unit has shown a lot of character in recent times by winning pressure games. 

“It gives us a great deal of confidence. I think in three of our wins we’ve had to show an immense amount of character, having to chase down 230 (vs SA) and then against Afghanistan, we put our backs against the wall early. We had to fight quite hard.”

“And it was completely different in the way we were way ahead of the game, had them four down quite early and then Angelo (Mathews) got them back into the game. It sort of asked a completely different question of us. With the bat we adapted a lot better than we did against Afghanistan, we showed we are capable of playing both smart cricket and aggressive cricket. I think we’ve struggled to do that in the last six to eight months or so. It’s an area, we are constantly trying to improve. But today, we went a long way to doing that,” a satisfied Morgan said. 

“The first 15 overs that we batted, we weren’t cautious but were on the smart side, and given the value of having two in batsman for the last five or so overs, the impact it can have with guys like Jos Buttler in and set, had a big impact on the game.” 

Morgan also admitted that it was advantageous to have already played a match at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground where they are likely to take on the Black caps in the semi-final. 

“The way I look at it is: their strength is spin, our strength is seam. It can be spin some days given conditions, that’s what makes us so adaptable. We bowl the majority of overs with seam or we can bowl 8 overs of spin, maybe 12, if (Joe Root) Rooty comes on,” he said. 

“All the teams are at a level par regardless of what ground they play at.” 

While the margin of win was only 10 runs againsr Sri Lanka last night, Morgan said it was not as close as some of the other games. 

“It wasn’t as edgy as other games we’ve played. We’ve played in some tight games in the past. You can be quite objective about things. Chris Jordan in the 19th over bowled a brilliant ball that went for four runs and the next ball was a rubbish with which he got a wicket. So I was able to go, oh well that’s T20, that can happen. And when I’m in that frame of mind, I know I can make good decisions. So today I was able to maintain that, which is a good space to be in,’ he said. 

He had special praise for Ben Stokes who bowled four dot balls in the final over. “They (Sri Lanka) were in the game right until the end so Ben Stokes’ last over was as crucial as it gets,” he added.