Eoin Morgan: Privileged to have Moeen Ali in the side

England finally managed to register their first points in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, after they beat their neighbours and traditional rivals Scotland at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. England skipper Eoin Morgan, who has been under-fire for his side’s lacklustre show in the first two matches spoke to the media after the side’s win, which now takes them to the fifth position in the Pool A table.

Q: Eoin, we had Ian (Bell) in yesterday saying you didn’t want to just win, you wanted to win with a clinical performance. I’m guessing this was pretty much close to that?
Eoin Morgan (EM): Yeah, absolutely, a lot of positives to take from today. Ian’s innings is one of them. I thought him and Moeen in reasonably tough circumstances, the ball held up a bit and nipped around early, and I thought they held their composure really well and Moeen struck the ball really well as he has been, and for him to set a platform like that was absolutely ideal.

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Q: Was it disappointing not to score more, then, after you got that platform?
EM: Oh, I think you’re always disappointed. You always think you should get more than you should, but having been there for the last five overs, the wicket slowed up, and with the wind, as well, it made it difficult to find the boundary, and that gave me more confidence that 300 was an above par score.

Q: One area of concern, I guess, may be Gary Ballance’s form. He looks like a guy who hasn’t played that much on this trip. Is this an area that’s worrying you?
EM: It’s not worrying me. Yes, he hasn’t had as much time at the wicket or scored as many runs as we’d have liked, but again, up until today, we had a few guys like that. We went three or four games where we didn’t perform as a side, and today we’ve put in a good performance, guys put in individual performances and we built around it, and I was really happy with that.

Q: Can you just tell us what a win will do for the squad, bearing in mind what you’ve been through?
EM: No, I don’t think there’s ever a state of panic. Obviously two hard games, and the fact we didn’t perform was the most disappointing, but a win just puts things a little more at ease, and it gives guys a little bit of confidence.

Q: And it was a help, as well, that obviously Moeen was the star performer, but you chipped in with 46 and Jos (Buttler) had a little cameo, Steve Finn some wickets. The responsibility of the performance was shared around?
EM: Yeah, absolutely, and again, the outstanding performances, Moeen, Finny was brilliant, guys around that, Broady (Stuart Broad) bowled really well but unrewarded, and then Mo again with the ball built pressure. But yeah, guys building around match winners is a good sign.

Q: Tell us about your innings. You gave yourself a bit of a chance at the start and then looked pretty fluid, somewhat back to your normal self?
EM: Yeah, it’s obviously nice to spend a bit of time at the wicket and get some runs, given my run of low scores. But again, the bounce here was a little bit different, and the wicket slowed up a lot, so it took a little bit of time to get the pace of it. So having lost our two men probably in the space of about five overs, it was difficult to rotate strike in the middle of the powerplay, as well. It’s not easy to come in and bang it from ball one, so it was a bit more of a calculated and reserved innings today.

Q: As a captain, talk about one good thing you’ve done so far and one area you need to improve, apart from the runs, of course?
EM: You want me to identify? I’m not telling you. (Laughs)

Q: On their appearance today, what did you make of Scotland, and obviously in your Ireland days you played against them a fair amount, and how far have they come in the last decade or so?
EM: Well, we played against them last year and had quite a competitive game against them in Aberdeen I think it was, and again, they showed signs today that they’re growing stronger. An area in associate cricket that’s probably come a long way in the last five or six years is that on the flatter wickets they used to struggle because they didn’t have pace bowlers or guys that could change things up, but I think that’s come a long way since then, and again, we prepared like it was any other game or any One-Day International (ODI) that we were going to play, and Scotland should take a bit of credit from that. They put New Zealand under the pump in their game, and although today wasn’t their day, I’m sure they’ll come back stronger.

Q: Moeen scoring that century up front and then taking those wickets, he’s kind of an underrated cricketer when you look at him in a world circuit. How do you rate Moeen as an all-rounder, and do you see him playing the role of an all-rounder who’s also a spinner?
EM: I rate him really highly. He’s an all-rounder which we haven’t had for a very long time, somebody who opens the batting and plays in the fashion that he does, and the purchase he gets on the ball. I think we’re very privileged to have him, and we certainly don’t undervalue him.

Q: You’ve played half of your group games. From what you’ve seen of other teams’ performances and what you’ve obviously known of your own performances, where are you rating yourselves in relation to other teams in the event?
EM: We’re not really rating ourselves against other teams. It’s a matter of focusing exactly on what we do and trying to produce it as often or as consistently as possible.

Q: There aren’t many doosras being bowled in this World Cup. Would you like Moeen to bowl his?
EM: That’s up to Moeen. I haven’t spoken to him about it. He hasn’t needed it yet, so I’m sure we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Q: Eoin, what do you think needs to be improved on for the weekend which will presumably be a step up in class of opponent?
EM: I think just a little bit more consistency in what we do. Again, we hit our lengths reasonably well today, but if we’re totally harsh on ourselves, we weren’t – it was a good wicket to bat on, and probably the newer ball was easy to bat against when Scotland batted. We’re probably below par in that sense. Just being ruthless and simple, very simple in the way we approach things.

Q: I just wondered how close did you come to making any changes to the team? I know you suggested that you’re not one for panic decisions, but a lot of people thought there might be one or two. Was that something that came to your mind?
EM: We obviously considered it. We consider it before every game, but again, came to the conclusion that we haven’t performed in the first two games, so to argue the balance of the side was wrong, you couldn’t really do it because we hadn’t seen guys perform, and again, I was very confident going into the first two games that we had the strongest side to win those games, so reinforcing our confidence going with the same team today was very important.

Courtesy: ICC