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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

June 3, 2019

Eoin Morgan

West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, UK

Pakistan - 348/8, England - 334/9

Q. Was this a bad day at the office for you and your team?
EOIN MORGAN: I don't think it was a that bad of day. I think fielding wise, it was. We've gone from probably one of our best performances in the field at The Oval to not extremely bad, but it's cost us probably about 15 or 20 runs in the field, which is a lot in a one-day game. I think our performance throughout the tournament with the bat and the ball will ebb and flow. We'll have bad days. I didn't think it was that bad.

Also with the ball we restricted them. They never really got away with us given that the wicket was good and the outfield was very fast. And when we recovered with the bat with that substantial partnership, we were never really out of the game probably until the early 40s over, yeah.

Q. What do you put the field performance down to?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, we've done all the work. I think it's just a really bad day in the field. It hasn't happened a lot with us, but the there were mistakes that we don't normally make, which is disappointing.

Q. Was there an element of being over-awed by the crowd?
EOIN MORGAN: No, not at all, no. We've prepared for all this sort of stuff. When we play against Asian teams, it's always a home game for those guys. They tend to be louder than our support. So we've prepared for that, yeah.

Q. What's going to be the message to the players on the back of that performance and result?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, you know, there are some really good positives to take out of our batting and our bowling. But fielding is an attitude thing, so it's a matter of taking maybe our stand-off attitude today that we had in the field and getting it back to our positive attitude going for everything, playing that fearless nature, maybe taking a half chance instead of standing off a normal chance.

Q. Presumably chasing 350-odd, if I told you that two of your best batsmen were going to get 100s you'd still expect to chase it. So something else has gone wrong there, hasn't it?
EOIN MORGAN: Sort of. I'm never a big believer that hundreds win you games, particularly in this day and age. I think it's always a unit performance, particularly chasing down 350 or even more, and today is a good example of that. The guys did play brilliantly, but they just kept us in the game, and they needed more help from either the other four in the top six or guys down the order.

Q. It's a bit of hindsight, but do you think you could have gone a bit earlier in terms of trying to push the rate up because it seems like you were always slightly behind.
EOIN MORGAN: I don't think so. I think we were only two big overs behind, so two big overs, say between 16 and 18, which is always possible when Jos is at the crease. I think you're right back in the game. And then you don't ask too much of the guys coming in then. They never really came. But I mean, was it 14 we were short or -- 12 or 14? It's not that far away. So like I mentioned, the two guys played brilliantly.

Q. Were you surprised by Pakistan's intensity today or I suppose maybe impressed by it?
EOIN MORGAN: Not really, no. There's not that much that surprises me playing Pakistan. You sort of expect everything.

Q. There seemed to be a few conversations about the ball going out there when England were batting, and then when Jos was dismissed, he had a good look at it on his way back to the pavilion. Do you know what that was about?
EOIN MORGAN: The discussions were throughout the whole of the two innings. The umpires came to me after about -- I can't remember the exact over -- but it was mid-innings, and seemed to think that we were throwing the ball in on the bounce too much or it was being over-exaggerated and the other side said it would be the same for the both, so it was really back to stand that the conversations that were stopping the game where I thought Pakistan were doing the exact same thing, and Jos was just intrigued to see when the ball gets hit against LED boards, it does scuff it up quite a lot, and I'm sure he was interested to see if one side was rougher than the other or if it looked natural or unnatural.

Q. Did he say anything about it when he returned?
EOIN MORGAN: I haven't spoken to him about it, no.

Q. Given how close the defeat was, how frustrated is the dressing room after that?
EOIN MORGAN: I think frustrated in the fact that we could have done something about it, like I mentioned with the bat you can get bowled out. You can play against a side that's better than you or just have an off day. Same with the ball. But when it comes down to the difference in the sides being in the field, it's even more frustrating.

Q. What can Johnny and Jason do about this new tactic that they're hit with leg spinner in the first couple of overs?
EOIN MORGAN: Just be themselves. Be aggressive, be positive, approach it in the same manner. They are doing that. Yeah.

Q. Does it unsettle them at all do you think?
EOIN MORGAN: No, not at all. We talked about it before today's game that it might happen again. Actually surprised a little bit that Imad didn't play because we talked about him potentially taking the new ball.

Q. A little bit of a struggle with the over rate again. Is that because Adil couldn't get through all 10 overs, and is that going to be a problem going forward?
EOIN MORGAN: I think our over rate is good. About three overs to go, we were level.

Q. 20 past?
EOIN MORGAN: I don't wear a watch when I'm playing, I'm sorry. The umpires are only my gauge. They said all was level with about three overs to go.

Q. Pretty confident England are in the clear?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, yeah. It wasn't an issue. If like I said before, if it does become an issue, we'll have to address it, but it's normally all right.

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