London: England captain Eoin Morgan has insisted that his team’s World Cup hopes are not in jeopardy and they still have a ‘strong’ chance of making it to the semi-finals.
England, who came into the World Cup as hot favourites, Tuesday suffered a 64-run defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Australia at the Lord’s.
This was the second consecutive loss for the Three Lions after their shocking defeat against Sri Lanka June 21.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Morgan admitted his side’s confidence had taken a knock after their famed batting line-up failed to chase down 286 against the defending champions.
“I think it (confidence) will take a little bit of a hit,” Morgan said. “But I certainly don’t think it has knocked anybody in the changing room. Normally when we lose games of cricket, like I mentioned yesterday, we go back to what we do well. We’ll still strive to do that for Sunday’s game.”
The pre-tournament favourites have lost three games in the seven matches they have played so far in the tournament and they must now beat India or New Zealand to secure a spot in the last four. Ideally, they would want to win both the games as that will surely seal a spot for them in the semi-finals.
Asked about team’s chances in the World Cup, Morgan said: “They are strong.”
“The chances are in our hands. Everything is within our control. We just need to produce a performance worthy of winning either one or the next two games,” he added.
Morgan admitted to struggling with the basics against left-arm tearaways Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc, who took nine wickets between them Tuesday.
“I think both this game and the last, we struggled with the basics of what we call our batting mantra. You know, strong intent, building partnerships, and doing it in our own way, and we haven’t done those for long enough periods of the game in order to either chase down 230 or chase down 280, and that’s disappointing,” the England skipper said.
England now face third-placed India in a crunch clash at Edgbaston Sunday before they take on the Black Caps in Durham July 3.
IANS
