Morgan urges England to maintain Sri Lanka focus

Wednesday, 29 June 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

AFP: England captain Eoin Morgan wants his side to keep their concentration when they continue their one-day international series against Sri Lanka at The Oval on Wednesday.

Morgan’s men are 1-0 up with two to play in the five-match campaign after rain just four overs into their innings stopped them building on a good bowling display in the third ODI at Bristol on Sunday.

England and Sri Lanka played out a thrilling tie in last week’s first ODI at Trent Bridge before the hosts stormed to a 10-wicket win in the second match of the series at Edgbaston.

It all leaves England with work still to do if they are to win the series, following their 2-0 victory in the preceding three-Test campaign against Sri Lanka, and they could face further frustration at The Oval if rain forecast for south London duly arrives at Surrey’s headquarters ground.

“It’s certainly going to be one of the challenges over the next couple of games we play,” said Morgan at The Oval on Tuesday.

“With a lot of weather around, that is always a huge challenge that it doesn’t become a distraction -- and to switch on when we need to.

“We want to play as much cricket as we can, and I suppose (the weather) has halted a little bit of the momentum we’ve had,” the former Ireland batsman added.

“Tomorrow is about regaining that a little bit.”

Many of Morgan’s team-mates were watching on television as England’s football team suffered a humiliating exit from Euro 2016 following a 2-1 defeat by minnows Iceland in Nice on Monday.

While attention now turns to a replacement for Roy Hodgson, who resigned as England manager on Monday, Morgan’s team have shown that improvement can happen after exiting a major tournament.

England’s cricketers suffered an embarrassing group-stage exit at last year’s World Cup following a defeat by makeweights Bangladesh in Adelaide.

But with Australian Trevor Bayliss replacing Peter Moores as coach, a new-look England side adopting an aggressive approach have enjoyed some notable successes in limited overs cricket, including reaching the final of this year’s World Twenty20.

“The learning experience we’ve had over the last 12 months, with the new group of players, has been so significant that there is almost a completely different team,” said Morgan.

“I suppose for us, it was going with a new method and a new group of players.”