Eoin Morgan was not the first great Irishman to suggest that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness” but he may be in agreement with Oscar Wilde.
For Morgan at least acknowledges that his England side, transformed since the calamitous World Cup of 2015, has now acquired many of the qualities of the Kiwi side that humbled them in Wellington, New Zealand, in February 2015. On that dismal day for English cricket Morgan’s team were beaten by eight wickets with 37.4 overs to spare. The New Zealanders required 124 runs for victory and were none too circumspect in their response. Brendon McCullum hit 77 from 25 balls.
Morgan was reminded of that contest “for want of a better word” while the rain was falling at Cardiff. “It was sort of men against boys,” he said before adding to no one’s surprise, “but I think it’s completely different now, two years down the line. We’ve got a completely new team pretty much [in fact five of those who endured that match at Wellington could play in Cardiff on Tuesday]. And hopefully we are moving forward.”
No doubt England have progressed and their template was very much in the image of New Zealand’s 2015 World Cup campaign. McCullum and Morgan are good friends and England’s captain, being an intelligent man, is bound to have picked the brains of the former Kiwi captain.
Morgan was not too keen to emphasise how England have learnt from New Zealand. To adopt the pupil/teacher pose just before a vital clash between the two countries might not be appropriate. But he acknowledged the impact of that 2015 World Cup.
“If you look at the top four teams that got to the semi-final stage in the World Cup, they all seemed to score regular totals over 350. So I think they’ve contributed to the change as a whole.
“The way New Zealand went about playing their cricket was probably closer to the way we go about it now. We have very similar characteristics and values as a side and it’s probably the easiest relate to them out of those four teams that made the later stages. I think the dominant factor with New Zealand was that they had that crucial confidence within the group at the time, whereas we didn’t have it.”
Morgan can claim with justification that there is that confidence within his squad now. This helps to explain a reluctance to tinker with his team – or at least his batsmen. Faith in Jason Roy remains and he will open the batting.
That yearning for consistency also enhanced the chances of Steven Finn getting the call-up once Chris Woakes’ side strain had been diagnosed.
Morgan said Finn was the straightforward choice, backing up consistency of selection and the trust they have shown in their players recently. “We’ve tried to go like for like [when choosing replacements] as often as we can.
“But when we can’t we go for a guy we can throw the ball to at any stage in order to try to make an impact on the game. And Finny is one of those guys. I’d have no hesitation in playing him tomorrow if we felt it was the right thing to do.
“It all depends on the wicket,” Morgan said, before remembering to mention the quality of pace bowling already in his squad.
However, he did not mention Finn’s chilling experience in that Wellington match more than two years ago. Sometimes bowling figures lie but, however one stares at 2-0-49-0, they do not look good. The one-word explanation is McCullum. At least on Tuesday the Kiwis’ World Cup captain will be in some commentary box, where he can cause little damage.
The make-up of the bowling attack will occupy Morgan’s mind on Tuesday morning. Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, Ben Stokes – recovering fast from his knee problems – and Moeen Ali are bound to play. Then England must pick two from Adil Rashid, Jake Ball, David Willey and Finn.
A sweaty pitch favours retaining two pace bowlers; so, too, do the short, straight boundaries in Cardiff. However, there is also the notion that the Kiwis might not play Rashid as well as some of the Asian nations. And the leg‑spinner, though left out against Bangladesh, has been a trusted performer in ODIs.
New Zealand were probably robbed of victory when the rain fell at Edgbaston in their match against Australia. They retain the no-holds barred approach that McCullum insisted on two years ago, have three hostile pacemen in Tim Southee, Adam Milne and Trent Boult and some dangerous strikers of the ball as well as Kane Williamson, the Kiwi Joe Root – or is it the other way round?
Martin Guptill hits a long ball at the top of the order for such a mild-mannered man and a former opening batsman for Derbyshire. Like Morgan he did not wish to exaggerate the similarities between the two sides but he recognised that England “have a similar brand of batting to the way we’ve gone about our business over the last few years”.
He said: “So it’s probably going to be a pretty exciting game tomorrow and I think the fans are looking forward to it.”
There is indeed much to savour if the puddles disappear. An opening pair of Guptill and Luke Ronchi does not let many deliveries pass harmlessly by; or as our great Irishman (still not Morgan) once admitted they “can resist everything except temptation”.
Morgan reports Stokes to be pain-free and ‘nearly there’
England are bubbling with an optimism that defied the thick grey clouds and long white tarpaulins visible on arrival in Cardiff on Monday. Eoin Morgan, the captain, may have lost the services of Chris Woakes with a strained side but he is bullish about the advance of Ben Stokes, his totemic all-rounder with the dodgy left knee for a match against New Zealand where a win would secure a passage into the semi-finals.
“I think he’s very close to full fitness. He came through the other day [when England played Bangladesh at The Oval], bowling more overs [seven] than we intended. But I think we’re nearly there. He’s had no pain in five days now. So, if that continues, there’s a chance he may bowl 10 overs.”
Some of England’s players, including Stokes, were staying very close to the scene of the latest atrocity in London but Morgan is confident his men can deal with the climate of uncertainty and the nature of the security measures in place.
“Within our team there are no concerns. I think we sort of proved that we can cope in Leeds after what happened in Manchester [England played South Africa at Headingley immediately after the terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena]. Obviously the guys are chatting about it constantly because it’s not very far from where we stayed and a lot of us live nearby. So we’re always talking about it and making sure that everybody feels they can talk about it and not hide away from it.”
The make-up of England’s team is undecided, mostly because of the torrential rain that fell on Cardiff on Monday. Morgan has glimpsed the surface. “It looked like a reasonably good pitch yesterday [Sunday] but an extra 24 hours under the hot, sweaty cover might change things in the morning. There’s normally a lot of grass here, not necessarily green grass, but with quite a thatchy feel to the wicket. I’ll think about it for another 24 hours.”
Morgan will be thinking about his best bowling attack rather than his batsmen. He implied that Jason Roy, his out-of-form opener, will stay in the side for at least one more game. “Jason has obviously lacked runs but certainly everybody in the team, the squad and the backroom staff feel that a score is around the corner. So hopefully it is tomorrow.” And hopefully Roy is of the same mind as everyone else.
The choice of bowlers is dictated by various factors: there are two short straight boundaries to consider but perhaps more significant is the sweatiness of the pitch, which will be minutely examined this morning. The think-tank’s observations will decide whether England opt for two spinners by recalling Adil Rashid – surprisingly omitted from the first game against Bangladesh having played in 41 of England’s previous 44 ODIs.
Rashid might have been deflated by that decision but Morgan said: “Adil is quite relaxed about things. Everybody wants to play, all 15. It’s not easy leaving guys out sometimes. We select the man we think is the best chance of winning that particular game.” The prize for winning this game for England is unusually significant. Victory for Morgan’s side would guarantee them a semi-final berth.
