Champions Trophy: Eoin Morgan believes England have found their strongest one-day team

Best team | Eoin Morgan is happy with the England one-day team
AFP/Getty Images
Tom Collomosse6 June 2017

Eoin Morgan believes England have found their strongest one-day team as they moved into the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy by beating New Zealand in Cardiff.

England will return to the city for their last four tie next Wednesday following their 87-run victory. Their wins over Bangladesh and New Zealand means they are confirmed as group winners, even before they meet Australia at Edgbaston on Saturday, due to the number of victories they have recorded.

Adil Rashid was restored to the team here in place of the injured Chris Woakes and the leg-spinner was impressive, taking two for 47 from his 10 overs.

It meant England were able to defend their total of 310 comfortably, even though skipper Morgan believed initially that it would be insufficient.

He said: “I certainly think [we have alighted on our best team]. Having Ben Stokes being able to bowl 10 overs really does balance out the team. It's like playing four quick bowlers.

“We will take a very serious attitude into the Australia game. We never take any position that we've ever been in for granted. If we're truly going to be contenders for this tournament, we need to beat the best teams.

“And Australia are one of the best teams - they always are in a white ball tournament. They seem to produce limited overs cricketers at will. Our only approach must be to try to win it.”

Jos Buttler, Joe Root and Alex Hales posted half-centuries for England, while Liam Plunkett took four for 55. Mark Wood took the crucial wicket of Kiwi captain Kane Williamson, who had made 87 and seemed to be taking his team to victory.

Morgan added: “With the inconsistent bounce in the pitch, I genuinely thought that if we took one wicket, we would take two.”

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