Eoin Morgan says England must adapt better to conditions after Windies loss
Written by News on 04/03/2019
England captain Eoin Morgan says his side must improve when it comes to adapting to conditions after they were comprehensively beaten in the fifth ODI against Windies.
The additional bounce on offer to the seamers at the Darren Sammy Stadium was something England struggled to cope with and Morgan accepted that they must adjust far more quickly in future.
“We struggled throughout the whole innings with the bat to adapt to conditions here,” he said. “The extra bit of bounce on the wicket is not something we come up against very often so we struggled massively.
“We were way off the ball and Windies forced a lot of errors from us. Today was pretty much a one-horse race and we didn’t deserve to win the game.”
After batsmen-friendly surfaces in Barbados and Grenada, Morgan suggested that England were unable to control their attacking instincts on a pitch that provided more assistance for the bowlers.
“It is quite difficult to curb what has been your natural reaction for the last couple of weeks. The honest answer is we need to get better at it,” he added.
“When we come up against different conditions it never is that easy for any side but you need to adapt on the day and find a way of scoring runs, occupying the crease and managing your innings better than we did today.
“You do have to rock up on any given day and be in a good enough head space to adapt to conditions.
“We’ve done it on slower, lower wickets, we’ve done it on turning wickets but we’re yet to do it on a wicket like today but I hope, and I’d like to think, that we learn from the mistakes we’ve made today and look forward, as opposed to looking back, on how we can improve playing in conditions like this.
“I think we’ve competed really well in this series, we’ve not been at our complete best, but certainly the West Indies have put in a huge contest.
“The series ending 2-2 is a fair reflection, both sides have played some really good cricket and the support around the Caribbean has been awesome. Today is a disappointment but as a series, we’ve got a lot of positives to take.”
Watch the first T20 international between Windies and England from 7.30pm, Tuesday on Sky Sports Cricket.
(c) Sky News 2019: Eoin Morgan says England must adapt better to conditions after Windies loss
