London : England skipper Eoin Morgan has showered praise on his side’s openers, describing their performance as ‘absolutely remarkable’ after the hosts thrashed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the second one-day international at Edgbaston.
Chasing a modest target of 255, England openers Jason Roy (112 not out) and Alex Hales (133 not out) were hardly bothered by Sri Lankan bowlers as the duo plundered runs and notched up their individual centuries to steer the hosts to victory in just 34.1 overs.
Their unbroken stand of 256 was England’s highest ODI partnership for any wicket, surpassing the 250-run record set by Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott for the second wicket against Bangladesh in 2010.
“That chase was absolutely remarkable,” Morgan was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. We were so in control without being reckless. The two boys were outstanding. They were very imposing and they played brilliant, very entertaining cricket.”
The captain also lauded his bowlers for displaying a much improved performance on an excellent batting surface. He said, “Here, I didn’t think we did anything exceptional, but we did the basics well. It didn’t swing or nip off the seam and there are always huge challenges in one-day cricket when that doesn’t happen.”
Morgan emphasized that bowlers bowled at good line and length and applied pressure on the tourists by bowling bouncers judiciously. “But we starved them of runs. We banged out a length and we used our bouncers well. We built pressure that way which resulted in us taking wickets. It was brilliant.”
With the win, England have taken a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series and will next play against Sri Lanka in Bristol on Sunday.
The opening match of the series had ended in a thrilling tie on Tuesday. (ANI)