It hurts a lot to lose after reducing India to 63/4, says Eoin Morgan

Pune: Eoin Morgan expressed disappointment after England lost the first ODI against India after scoring 350 runs batting first here on Sunday. But more than England’s failure to defend their highest total against India in ODIs, Morgan was “hurt” with the fact that England could not win the game after reducing India to 63 for 4.

“It hurts more as we had India 60 for 4 (63 for 4). We were right into their middle order. Obviously, Virat was still in but we certainly did not expect Jadhav to come out and play like that. But credit to him, 60-70 ball hundred. He was just striking it from the ball one and gave us no chances. We take the hat off to him. Yes, the batting effort was good but it still was not our best. When you score 350, you expect to play really well. I think that sort of summarises the conditions here. The pitch was really really good and the boundaries are pretty small,” said Morgan.

The England limited-overs skipper also pondered about what could have been had Kohli been caught in the beginning of his innings. The Indian skipper did not time a shot through off-side but did not get out as the ball managed to sail over third-man’s head.

“I think there is always something you can do. The plans were not far off working today. There was the ball went overhead Hales’ head. On another day, that goes into the hands and they are five down and you are right into them. He is fantastic player and proved that over a long period of time,” added Morgan.

“We have watched the footage of his international games. We were not necessarily caught off-guard. He played really well. We did take care of as much as we could,” concluded Morgan.