England jubilation on hold despite Cricket World Cup victory over Scotland

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/23/england-jubilation-on-hold-despite-win

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Neither captain was beaming after the match. Eoin Morgan could hardly punch the air with delight at a victory over Scotland, however relieved he might have been. Moreover this tournament is a marathon and England have only travelled about half-a-dozen miles, albeit with some terrible stomach cramps along the way.

Morgan, like a good predictable old pro, said, “There are lot of positives to take. That includes Ian’s [Bell’s] innings alongside Moeen [Ali]. They held their composure really well and gave us the ideal platform.”

In the end Morgan was satisfied with 303 despite a late innings stutter. “You always think you should get more. But the wicket got slower; the wind was difficult and it was hard to find the boundary. 300 was always better than par.”

Morgan did not betray too much elation, but he is not a man to wear his heart on his sleeve and he has remained stony-faced after the defeats to Australia and New Zealand. “There was no state of panic after two hard games. The win means we are more at ease with ourselves and there’s more confidence in the team, even among those who didn’t perform.”

Morgan, after a period of careful reconnaissance did perform, especially by the standards he has set this year. “It was nice to spend time at the wicket and to get some runs given the low scores. It was difficult to rotate the strike in the powerplay since it took time to gauge the pace of the pitch.”

Moeen was his match-winner. “I rate him really highly as an all-rounder and we haven’t had one like that for a long time,” said Morgan. Moeen himself acknowledged that the team might have scored 340. “But we haven’t been playing well so we were happy to take 300.” So jubilation was on hold.

Preston Mommsen was no cheerier both in word and demeanour. The Scots genuinely fancied their chances in Christchurch. “We are very disappointed,” he said, “especially after we won the toss. In the second half of their innings we did brilliantly to restrict them to 300. At the half-time break we were confident but we didn’t get going. Maybe we had more time than we thought to chase the runs.”

He could only be polite about England. “Moeen did a fantastic job. And [Steve] Finn made a brilliant comeback. They have a lot of quality players.”

And so he left gloomily. For Scotland their critical game in the World Cup is probably their next one on Thursday in Dunedin when they have their best chance of registering their first World Cup win against Afghanistan. For England, Sri Lanka await on Sunday at Wellington. Morgan, looking ahead to that fixture was straightforward about the prospect. “We want more consistency and to be ruthless and simple in how we approach things.”