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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

May 30, 2019

Eion Morgan

Kennington, London, England, UK

Q. On the score card, that's a really sizable victory. Did it feel like it was going to be one of those days?
EOIN MORGAN: No, it didn't, definitely didn't. I think given the nature of the pitch and the way South Africa bowled, I think we were fighting our Plan A game with the bat for quite some time, and that probably emphasized how slow the pitch was.

It never allowed you to get away, and I suppose strike the ball like we would do for our Plan A.

So I think it -- you know, one of the areas of our game that we've improved the last two years is the way that we've assessed conditions and played a bit more smart cricket and building partnerships and putting a total on the board and believing that that's enough, and then certainly at the halfway stage, we didn't believe that we had enough, but we believed that we had in and around a par or maybe above a par score.

Q. Can you sum up as a captain, your reaction to what Ben produced today? He dug in with the bat and got a couple wickets and then in the middle, his best catch we've seen.
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, he's had a full day out, and when he did, it's extremely entertaining and it's great for the game. Because we see a lot of him, in training, do stuff like that all the time and you just shake your head at it because it doesn't happen every day. And today, his all-around game was on, and that's great for us at the start of a tournament. It shows that he's right on top of his game.

Q. The start that Jofra gave, the pace that he generated, does that give you an edge going forward into the tournament?
EOIN MORGAN: I think it gives us another string to our bowl. We certainly have two quicks, two out-and-out quicks on our squad with him and Mark Wood. But for him to bowl as quick and accurately today on a slow wicket, I think shows that he's in good form.

Q. Is it a relief to be into the tournament and have got that win?
EOIN MORGAN: It's a relief to be into the tournament. I've said, you know, we are going to lose games throughout the tournament. If it was to happen to be the first one, it didn't really matter. It is a relief to be off and running. It's great to get a win. It's even better to produce a performance like that.

Q. Is England trying to approach one-day cricket in a completely different way? Does it remind you of your when you were playing a 20-over match? Are they trying to resemble this?
EOIN MORGAN: We've been trying to do that for four years. We've been trying to play like this for four years. We're just trying to do the things differently that suit us and suit the players that we have.

Q. The Proteas got a great start, but just kind of were inconsistent and just couldn't continue when they had good patches. What do you make of them, and can you see them really challenging in this tournament?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I do see them challenging. I think with regard to their start, I suppose they started well with the ball and the bat. I thought that with the bat, you know, the first 10-overs was probably the best time to bat, given that the wicket continued to slow up. Scoring became harder. Boundaries became harder to find, as well. So that probably contributed to it.

But I thought we bowled well. It's probably one of our better bowling performances.

Q. Were there any concerns yesterday when you saw the pitch, and would you like a bit more pace in pitches as the tournament progresses?
EOIN MORGAN: I just want a fair a pitch as possible. I don't want any advantage at all. I'd like the best cricket-wicket possible. I don't want it slanted one way or the other. Yeah, we want this tournament to be as entertaining as possible, so when it comes to a pitch -- I mean, we still scored 300. People seen a lot of runs scored today and people hopefully walk away want to go comeback again to see more.

Q. Do you believe Archer is the main surprise pick of the tournament?
EOIN MORGAN: No. Sri Lanka got about ten new members, don't they? Don't they? Sri Lanka picked a couple of guys that haven't played against, and I've been playing for ten years. I think that's the surprise for me.

Q. When pundits have been trying to figure out how people can beat England, people were banking on the collapses and hoping that might stick. Are you quite pleased with losing two wickets in quick succession; that you were still able to consolidate and still go 6-0; how pleasing is that?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, it is extremely pleasing. I would like us to lose four early and still go at least five and over. We bat all the way down. We've been 8-for-5 in Adelaide. We've been 20-for-5 and still put a reasonable score on the board, and fought right till the end and still believed we could win the game.

So if we lose wickets early, which we inevitably will at some stage, that will happen. We'll have to deal with that situation.

Q. You say you see catches like that from Ben in training and stuff, but still, when he does produce it out in the middle like that, what was your reaction when you're seeing that ball flying, you're probably thinking, four or six, right?
EOIN MORGAN: Well, he misjudged it at the start. He run in, stopped, and then I thought it was way over his head. And then the next sort of leap in that direction -- I've only seen a catch like that from somebody like A.B. de Villiers before in a game of Bangalore, IPL game in Bangalore, similar. Yeah, I don't know how to describe it. It's unbelievable.

Q. Given all the sort of talk coming from the South African camp about wicket-attacking bowling and their fast bowling, how surprised were you by Tahir bowling, and just how much of the slower bowls they used and that sort of thing?
EOIN MORGAN: Probably not so much surprised about the slower bowls, given that the attack that they went with, and the wicket that we played on. A little bit surprise that had Rabada didn't take the new ball, and Tahir did but obviously came off with a wicket but didn't see Rabada come in straightaway. That surprised us all.

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