Friday 12 July 2019 08:59, UK
Eoin Morgan says Sunday’s World Cup final against New Zealand is a "huge opportunity" for England after they hammered Australia in the semi-final.
England cruised to an eight-wicket win at Edgbaston after bowling Aaron Finch's side out for 223 and then knocked off the runs with 17.5 overs to spare.
Having crashed out at the group stage four years ago, they have the chance to cap a remarkable turnaround at Lord's by becoming world champions for the first time.
"It's an opportunity for us on Sunday and a huge one at that," Morgan said.
"Looking back to where we were in 2015 and then looking ahead to where we'll be on Sunday, it's a dramatic improvement in the style we play and the level of expectation that we've created.
"Everybody in that changing room should take a huge amount of credit for that and making most of the opportunity would be fantastic. But getting there alone is awesome."
Having come into the tournament as favourites, England were in danger of missing out on the knockout stages after defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia, but wins over India and New Zealand ensured there was no early exit this time around.
"Taking a lot from the last two group-stage games into the semi-final was very important," Morgan added.
"We talked about needing to continue to get better and better game-on-game, today is a good example of us setting the tone from ball one and when we got on top, we really made Australia pay."
Chris Woakes was named man of the match after taking 3-20, including the early wickets of David Warner and Peter Handscomb, and Morgan was pleased to see one of England's less heralded players take the plaudits in such a big game.
"I'm extremely happy. He's a cool customer, he goes about his business day in, day out exceptionally," he added.
"Over the last couple of years he's been one of the best bowlers in the first 10 overs. Today was his day, him and Jofra [Archer] up front were outstanding. It was probably one of the standout performances of the last four years in those 10 overs for us.
"Then the guys coming in behind really did back that up which allowed us to stay on top."
Watch the Cricket World Cup final between New Zealand and England at Lord's from 9am, Sunday on Sky Sports Cricket World Cup.
