'Tourists can still get better, despite being 2-0 up with three to play'
Saturday 20 January 2018 08:12, UK
Captain Eoin Morgan says England are still searching for the "complete performance", despite earning a 2-0 lead over Australia with a convincing four-wicket win in Brisbane.
England recorded only their second ODI victory at the Gabba by chasing down a target of 271 in just 44.2 overs as Jonny Bairstow (60) and Alex Hales (57) struck fifties.
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Australia, who chose to bat first, were kept in check by a disciplined England bowling display which featured 2-31 from man-of-the-match Joe Root.
"I thought the bowlers were exceptional on a particularly hot day," said Morgan. "I'd like to think we'll get better as we go on but today was an outstanding bowling performance.
"We did enough to win, it was certainly far from our best performance with the bat but I suppose that's exciting in a way, we're 2-0 up in the series.
"We're still looking for a complete performance as a batting unit. Hopefully that comes in Sydney on Sunday.
"We have a level of trust and confidence within the group that somebody will put their hand up on the day."
Root followed up his two wickets with an unbeaten 46, sharing stands of 68 with Jos Buttler (42) and an unbroken partnership of 47 with Chris Woakes (39no).
But the Test skipper was particularly pleased with his seven-over bowling spell, in which he trapped Australian skipper Steve Smith (18) lbw and induced a return catch from Travis Head.
"It was enjoyable today," reflected Root. "I didn't think I'd bowl seven overs at the start of the day, so I'm very pleased with how it's gone.
"It's enjoyable to get wickets at the top of the innings. The form Smith has been in this summer, it's enjoyable for me to see the back of him and hopefully that can continue.
"Whenever you come off the back of a series loss you want to prove a point and this is a great chance for us as a one-day group to show how good a side we are away from home."
Smith, whose side must win each of the remaining games to follow up their Ashes success with victory in this ODI series, said a lack of firepower at the end of Australia's innings let the hosts down after Aaron Finch's second hundred in as many games.
"Unfortunately we're not playing good enough one-day cricket at the moment," said Smith.
"Finch played particularly well to score his hundred and we were in a good position at 209-3 with 11 overs to go but we only scored 60 with seven wickets in hand and that's not good enough against a quality England batting line-up.
"We lost a couple of wickets in a row - Marsh got out, then Finchy got out straight after him and we just couldn't get that power going at the back end. Our end-batters need to bat for that little bit longer.
"I thought Jhye Richardson bowled particularly well tonight but I think we'll have all three back in Sydney (Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins) and we'll see how we go.
"It's a quarter-final, semi-final and final for us now and we've got to play some better cricket."
