Monday 1 October 2012

Morgan Unfazed by T20 Home Crowd

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Eoin Morgan says England will not be fazed by the home crowd when they face Sri Lanka in their decisive World Twenty20 Super Eights match on Monday.

Victory will earn England a semi-final spot unless West Indies beat New Zealand and also better the defending champions' run rate in the group.

But England could lose and still progress if the Kiwis beat West Indies.

"The home teams get huge crowds," said Morgan. "It will be a great experience and I hope we'll thrive on it."

Morgan added: "There's noise like you've never heard as a cricketer. It really gets the blood flowing."

Morgan has become England's key middle-order batsman in the absence of Kevin Pietersen and the left-hander told BBC Test Match Special how much he has enjoyed the extra responsibility.

"Chasing gives me a focus, something I relish is being there at the end," he said. "I didn't do it against New Zealand but being there when you win is a great feeling.

"The most difficult thing is when a bowler is unpredictable when they vary line, length or pace in particular. If you can anticipate what they are going to bowl I makes a massive difference.

"We are only three way matches away from retaining the title. If we beat Sri Lanka we will be hard to beat because of the confidence we would gain from beating the home side on their own turf with all the variations they have."

Sri Lanka, who have already beaten New Zealand and Windies in the Super Eights, will advance if they avoid a heavy defeat by England.

There is also a scenario where the Black Caps could also qualify if they beat West Indies by a big margin and England lose to the hosts.

Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene is wary of English duo Morgan and Luke Wright, who have been the main contributors with the bat during their two Super Eights matches so far.

"They have some quality players and are good with the ball as well," Jayawardene said.

"They are defending champions and will throw us a different challenge.

"Those two guys have been around for a while. Eoin has been playing regularly, Luke not so regularly but he has been travelling a lot.

"Luke has played lot of T20 cricket also and England were an exciting team when we saw them play in Colombo. They have some quality players and it should be a very good game."

West Indies captain Darren Sammy said his team would consider including an extra spinner in Samuel Badree in Monday's match against New Zealand (11:00 BST).

"There's a bit of possibility that Badree could play. It's horses for courses," said Sammy, whose team struggled against Sri Lanka's spinners on Saturday . "If it is dry like it is on Monday, he stands a good chance of playing."

Having lost both their Super Eight matches so far, New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori says he still has hope of progressing.

"It was disappointing to lose to England, a game we should have won," Vettori said. "We slipped up in that game and now we find ourselves fighting to stay in the competition.

"We can take a lot of positives the way Sri Lanka beat West Indies. I hope we can come up with something to pull off a win."

England (from): Stuart Broad (capt), Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Alex Hales, Luke Wright, Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach, Danny Briggs, Tim Bresnan.

Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wkt), Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekera, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis, Akila Dananjaya, Dinesh Chandimal.

Umpires: S Taufel (Aus) and S Davis (Aus)

Third umpire: A Rauf (Pak)

Match referee: J Srinath (Ind)



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