Eoin Morgan was reluctant to criticise his batsmen after they fell to eight for five in their three-wicket defeat by Australia, but the England captain did admit that they still need to find a balance between their now trademark aggression and circumspection on pitches as lively as the one in Adelaide.
“We don’t want to lose our positive mindset but it’s a balancing act,” he said. “We don’t want to wipe ten overs out of the game and say, ‘They bowled well but we only got 15 to 20 runs.’ We still want to take the game forward.
“I would rather probably be 40 for two than 20 for nought. We just need to get better at playing that way.”
Morgan praised the Australian bowlers, particularly Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, for the manner in which they exploited helpful conditions early on. “I thought Patty and Josh bowled particularly well and were hard to get away,” he said. “The massive difference in the game was the first ten overs. They took advantage of conditions and really were relentless with traditional line and length. They bowled really, really well and the ball moved around.”
Steve Smith was relieved to take a first victory in the series but unhappy with how his side chased 196, losing seven wickets in the process. “It was nice to get over the line in the end,” the Australia captain said. “But it was a pretty ordinary batting display really, apart from Heady [Travis Head made 96] who played really well. The rest of us probably need to have a good, hard look at ourselves.”
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England
Jason Roy c Smith b Hazlewood 0
Jonny Bairstow c Paine b Hazlewood 0
Alex Hales b Cummins 3
Joe Root c Hazlewood b Cummins 0
Eoin Morgan c Paine b Cummins 33
Jos Buttler c Paine b Hazlewood 0
Moeen Ali c Head b Tye 33
Chris Woakes c sub (Maxwell) b Tye 78
Adil Rashid c Paine b Cummins 7
Tom Curran c Marsh b Tye 35
Mark Wood not out 2
Extras: (1b, 4w) 5
Total: 196 (44.5 overs)
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-4, 4-6, 5-8, 6-61, 7-112, 8-120, 9-180, 10-196.
Bowling: Josh Hazlewood 10-0-39-3 (1w), Pat Cummins 10-2-24-4 (2w), Mitchell Marsh 5-1-24-0, Andrew Tye 7.5-0-33-3, Travis Head 2-0-9-0, Adam Zampa 7-0-42-0 (1w), Marcus Stoinis 3-0-24-0.
Australia
David Warner c Buttler b Woakes 13
Travis Head c Morgan b Wood 96
Cameron White lbw b Curran 3
Steve Smith c Root b Rashid 4
Mitchell Marsh c & b Rashid 32
Marcus Stoinis c Roy b Rashid 14
Tim Paine not out 25
Pat Cummins run out 3
Andrew Tye not out 3
Extras: (3w, 1nb) 4
Total: 197 for seven (37 overs)
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Did not bat: Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-48, 3-70, 4-112, 5-136, 6-180, 7-185
Bowling: Chris Woakes 7-0-36-1, Marcus Wood 9-0-58-1 (1w), Tom Curran 2-1-10-1 (2w), Moeen Ali 8-0-41-0 (1nb), Adil Rashid 10-0-49-3, Joe Root 1-0-3-0.
Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lanka, and Sam Nogajski, Australia. TV Umpire: Chris Gaffaney, New Zealand.
