ENGLAND TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2019-20

Such wins create belief that you can chase down anything: Morgan

by Rob Johnston • Published on

England registered their second highest successful run chase © AFP

Chasing down 223 against South Africa in Centurion on Sunday (February 16) to win the three match T20I series is a big confidence booster for England ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year, according to Eoin Morgan.

England reached their target with five balls and five wickets to spare, registering their second highest successful run chase behind the 230 they reached to beat South Africa in the World T20 in India in 2016. It gave England a 2-1 series victory, a good achievement given they lost the opening match.

"It creates belief that you can chase down anything and it reinforces what our method is in chasing big totals down," said Morgan of his side's effort at SuperSport Park. "It's a reference point to what we can do, there's no limit on restricting yourself to certain things.

"You want to leave everything out there with the bat. It won't always work but it will give us the best chance of winning. Moving forward from this series, our learning will continue to get better, hopefully, because I don't think we've played at our best in this series.

"There are a couple of key match-ups when you're looking at chasing down scores like that that give the side belief. One of their key bowlers throughout this series and today would have been [Tabraiz] Shamsi and to take on a guy like that in the way Jonny and Jos did reinforces how good the wicket is and how good those guys are at the crease.

"That creates a lot of belief in the dugout and the changing room that we're not standing back, we're moving forward and trying to get better. If we can continue to do that at key points in the game then we'll become a better side."

Morgan confirmed that England would stick with a top three of Buttler, Jason Roy and Bairstow in T20I cricket despite the possibility of Buttler, who has done a good job as an opener, moving back into the middle order to help solve England's struggle to find a consistent finisher, a role that Buttler plays expertly.

"If he'd failed today, he still would have been considered in the top three," Morgan told Sky Sports. "He's a very fine player. He's got unbelievable ability to take any bowling line-up apart, and to have somebody in your side like that is great.

"[Jos is] one of our greatest-ever white-ball cricketers. I realise why people talk about him so much, but not in a negative way. I think he has as much talent as someone like AB de Villiers. It took AB de Villiers a long time and a lot of games to actually get going in a South African shirt. We need to back guys that have that sort of talent.

"I think the priority at the moment is to get the top three as many balls under their belt as they can. They're the most destructive players that we have. If that changes between now and the World Cup, and we feel the need to fill a gap somewhere, then we might change it, but for the moment it's an extremely destructive batting line-up to play against."

© Cricbuzz

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