England avoided any embarrassment with a comfortable win over Scotland at the ICC Cricket World Cup and their captain was clearly pleased at the outcome.

“I’m delighted with today’s performance,” said Eoin Morgan.

“After a couple of bad games it was important for us to focus on what we do and today we came out and played and expressed ourselves a little bit which is good to see.”

In his post-match interviews Morgan was asked if there was any thought to changing the batting order once the openers had put 172 on for the first wicket.

“We’re really flexible, going forward,” he said, before clarifying, “Today was all about a win but as we get closer to the powerplay, to 35 or 36 overs in, we tend to be more flexible.”

After something resembling a drought in recent innings, Morgan made a timely 46 towards the end of England’s innings.

“It was nice to get some runs,” he confirmed. “I’d like some more as usual but it was nice to get some runs on the board.”

Morgan praised his attack, particularly Steven Finn, who gathered 3 wickets and Nottinghamshire’s Stuart Broad.

“I thought we were really good with the ball. The stand out performance was Steve Finn. He just came in and smashed the length and got the ball to talk a little bit. I thought Broady went unrewarded and was quite ruthless in what he did.

“Moeen Ali again chipping in with his 10-overs, I thought was brilliant.”

Ali collected the Player of the match award, after adding figures of 2-47 to the brilliant 128 he scored to set up the win.

“It’s nice to get a bit of form going into the next game,” said the Worcestershire all-rounder.

“Now, hopefully, I can keep going. It’s always nice to get a winning hundred.”

Asked if there was relief in the dressing room, Ali revealed, “We just said “Thank God for winning the game”. Now hopefully we can get on a winning run and win the next three.”

Scotland’s hopes of causing an upset were quickly swept aside by England’s opening partnership.

Preston Mommsen, who won the toss and inserted their rivals, admits their plans didn’t quite come off.

“We’d have liked a few early wickets but unfortunately that didn’t happen," he said.

"But we pulled it back nicely towards the back end of the innings then unfortunately with the bat we couldn’t quite get going.”

Ali and Ian Bell took their toll of some nervy bowling at the start of the match, something Mommsen wasn’t expecting.

“I’m not sure what we can put that down to,” he confessed.

“We didn’t quite hit our areas and obviously they are quality players and capitalised on it. They took their time early on but made it count towards the end.

“But i think credit to our bowling attack for the way they bounced back in the second half and the bowling at the death, I thought was very good.”

Asked if he thought his side had a chance at the mid-innings interval to chase down a target of 304, Mommsen said, “We still thought we were in with a shout. It was a good wicket. We knew we needed a partnership up front and we slowly started to get that. Unfortunately it couldn’t quite be the big one we needed.

“I thought Kyle (Kyle Coetzer, who made 71) batted beautifully. Unfortunately he couldn’t go on to get a really big one but he timed the ball beautifully today.”

 

Trent Bridge hosts the fourth Royal London One-Day International between England and New Zealand on Wednesday 17 June. Don't miss the chance to watch England seek redemption against the Kiwis and secure your seat now.