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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

February 23, 2015

Eoin Morgan

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

Q. Eoin, we had Ian in yesterday saying you didn't want to just win, you wanted to win with a clinical performance. I'm guessing this was pretty much close to that?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, absolutely, a lot of positives to take from today. Ian's innings is one of them. I thought him and Moeen in reasonably tough circumstances, the ball held up a bit and nipped around early, and I thought they held their composure really well and Moeen struck the ball really well as he has been, and for him to set a platform like that was absolutely ideal.

Q. Was it disappointing not to score more then after you got that platform?
EOIN MORGAN: Oh, I think you're always disappointed. You always think you should get more than you should, but having been there for the last five overs, the wicket slowed up, the older the ball got, and with the wind, as well, it made it difficult to find the boundary, and that gave me more confidence that 300 was an abovepar score.

Q. One area of concern, I guess, may be Gary Ballance's form. He looks like a guy who hasn't played that much on this trip. Is this an area that's worrying you?
EOIN MORGAN: It's not worrying me. Yes, he hasn't had as much time at the wicket or scored as many runs as we'd have liked, but again, up until today, we had a few guys like that. We went three or four games where we didn't perform as a side, and today we've put in a good performance, so if we can build on that, and like today, guys put in individual performances and we built around it, and I was really happy with that.

Q. Can you just tell us what a win will do for the squad, bearing in mind what you've been through?
EOIN MORGAN: No, I don't think there's ever a state of panic. Obviously two hard games, and the fact we didn't perform was the most disappointing, but a win just puts things a little more at ease, and it gives guys a little bit of confidence, even the guys who didn't perform today, that rubbing off or up against anyÂ sorry, that sounded terrible. Talking to other guys who have had a little bit of success today will be good for them.

Q. And it was a help, as well, that obviously Moeen was the star performer, but you chipped in with 46 and Jos had a little cameo, Steve Finn some wickets. The responsibility of the performance was shared around?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, absolutely, and again, the outstanding performances, Moeen, Finny was brilliant, guys around that, Broady bowled really well but unrewarded, and then Mo again with the ball built pressure and still quitted, and I think he finished with two or three. But yeah, guys building around match winners is a good sign.

Q. Tell us about your innings. You gave yourself a bit of a chance at the start and then looked pretty fluid, somewhat back to your normal self?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, it's obviously nice to spend a bit of time at the wicket and get some runs, given my run of low scores. But again, the bounce here was a little bit different, and the wicket slowed up a lot, so it took a little bit of time to get the pace of it. So having lost our two men probably in the space of about five overs, it was difficult to rotate strike in the middle of the powerplay, as well. It's not easy to come in and bang it from ball one, so it was a bit more of a calculated and reserved innings today.

Q. As a captain, talk about one good thing you've done so far and one area you need to improve, apart from the runs, of course?
EOIN MORGAN: You want me to identify? I'm not telling you. (Laughter.)

Q. On their appearance today, what did you make of Scotland, and obviously in your Ireland days you played against them a fair amount, and how far have they come in the last decade or so?
EOIN MORGAN: Well, we played against them last year and had quite a competitive game against them in Aberdeen I think it was, and again, they showed signs today that they're growing stronger. An area in associate cricket that's probably come a long way probably in the last five or six years is that on the flatter wickets they used to struggle because they didn't have pace bowlers or guys that could change things up, but I think that's come a long way since then, and again, we prepared like it was any other game or any oneday international that we were going to play, and Scotland should take a bit of credit from that. They put New Zealand under the pump in their game, and although today wasn't their day, I'm sure they'll come back stronger.

Q. Moeen scoring that century up front and then taking those wickets, he's kind of an underrated cricketer when you look at him in a world circuit. How do you rate Moeen as an allrounder, and do you important do you see him playing the role of an allrounder who's also a spinner?
EOIN MORGAN: I rate him really highly. He's an allrounder which we haven't had for a very long time, somebody who opens the batting and plays in the fashion that he does, and the purchase he gets on the ball. I think we're very privileged to have him, and we certainly don't undervalue him.

Q. You've played half of your group games. From what you've seen of other teams' performances and what you've obviously known of your own performances, where are you rating yourselves in relation to other teams in the event?
EOIN MORGAN: We're not really rating ourselves against other teams. It's a matter of focusing exactly on what we do and trying to produce it as often or as consistently as possible.

Q. Have you seen stuff from other teams that has concerned you, or are you pleased with your ownÂ just in relation to what you've seen and how the tournament is unfolding generally.
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I think coming into a tournament having not played or they don't come around very often, so everybody watches and takes a huge interest, so I'm no different. And again, in your head I think you can be guilty of building up a tournament of having to play your best throughout the tournament and hammer every side in order to win it to gain confidence, but I think the games that I've watched in particular haven't shown that at all. Strong sides have been beaten, and again, it's about getting points on the board; how you do it doesn't really matter.

Q. There aren't many doosras being bowled in this World Cup. Would you like Moeen to bowl his?
EOIN MORGAN: That's up to Moeen. I haven't spoken to him about it. He hasn't needed it yet, so I'm sure we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Q. Eoin, what do you think needs to be improved on for the weekend which will presumably be a step up in class of opponent?
EOIN MORGAN: I think just a little bit more consistency in what we do. Again, we hit our lengths reasonably well today, but if we're totally harsh on ourselves, we weren't it was a good wicket to bat on, and probably the newer ball was easy to bat against when Scotland batted. We're probably below par in that sense. Just being ruthless and simple, very simple in the way we approach things.

Q. I just wondered how close did you come to making any changes to the team? I know you suggested that you're not one for panic decisions, but a lot of people thought there might be one or two. Was that something that came to your mind?
EOIN MORGAN: We obviously considered it. We consider it before every game, but again, came to the conclusion that we haven't performed in the first two games, so to argue the balance of the side was wrong, you couldn't really do it because we hadn't seen guys perform, and again, I was very confident going into the first two games that we had the strongest side to win those games, so reinforcing our confidence going with the same team today was very important.
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