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England were clinical in 3rd ODI, says captain Eoin Morgan

England captain Eoin Morgan praised his side for continuing to improve after the defeat in the first ODI against India. Thereafter, England won both the ODIs – at Lord’s and Headingley – to win the series 2-1. He termed the showing on Tuesday as “clinical” with England winning by 8-wickets following a strong show in all departments. The job, however, was done by Morgan and Joe Root’s 13th ODI century to chase down the 257 run target with more than five overs to go.Morgan

“We started poorly. As the series has gone on we have improved. It is a benefit of playing a bilateral series,” Morgan said in the post-match press conference. “That constant improvement has been brilliant since Trent Bridge. Today I thought it was clinical, right from the get go. Mark Wood got the ball swinging with David Willey for three or four overs and India never seemed to get away from us from there,” he added.

Root and Morgan stitched 186 runs on the way to the win. It was Root’s second straight hundred and puts him in a confident position ahead of the five-match Test series starting on August 1. “I think it is extremely encouraging (for the Test series). The composure he’s shown, particularly in the last two games, is the Joe Root we know and trust. He’s been outstanding even when he’s been low on runs, around the group he’s been the same guy, hungry for runs and hopefully that continues for the rest of the summer,” Morgan said.

Following the unbeaten ton, Root climbed the charts among English batsmen to score ODI hundreds. When asked if he was the best in that list, Morgan replied, “I think it’s difficult to say because we’ve guys that were halfway through their careers that have huge potential that can be as good as Joe, or even be better, or have more contributions. If it’s not the next World Cup, it will be the next. Guys in their late 20s and mid-to-late 20s can still contribute as much as Joe has done. (But) He’s an absolutely unbelievable cricketer.”

Root played a key role in how England delt with an otherwise tricky customer in Kuldeep Yadav who has been difficult to read for the hosts. Ever since regaining his composure, Root drove England to victory in the latter games of this series at Lord’s and on Tuesday in Leeds. “It’s hard for me to compare red ball and white ball because it’s different picking the seam on the ball. I’m very proud of the way we’ve improved throughout. But Kuldeep hasn’t played that many games, I’m sure they’ll come back with something different.

“Adil Rashid has been at the top of his game for the last few years but he’s made unbelievable changes, fractional changes, variations and he reads the game well,” Morgan opined.

The win over a strong Indian team only adds to England’s tag of being favourites to win the 2019 World Cup in their own backyard. Morgan believes the challenge will be to maintain consistency until then.

“…be better at dealing with them (the challenges) from the start as opposed to making big mistakes and then improving on them as we go along. The World Cup is 10 games. I presume by the time the last group stage game is played it will be the best four teams topping the group. One of the disadvantages is you play a different team every time and that’s hard to replicate. The challenge will be trying to show the consistency that we’ve had and continue that hunger to improve. We have a lot of white-ball cricket leading into the World Cup,” he stated.

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