Eoin Morgan feels two close chases are perfect practice for England ahead of the World Cup

Eoin Morgan believes England are being given the ideal preparation for the upcoming World Cup following another tight contest as they won their one-off T20 against Pakistan in Cardiff.

The 32-year-old’s unbeaten 57 sealed an impressive seven-wicket victory over the No.1 T20 side just two days after Ben Foakes’ 61 not out had helped England recover from a precarious situation to defeat Ireland in their one-day international.

England will face Bangladesh in their third World Cup fixture in Cardiff and Morgan was happy his team were able to re-acclimatise with the unique ground.


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“Two close matches is great practice for us (going into a World Cup),” Morgan told Sky Sports. “I think the guys are learning from this as we go on. They were two different challenges in the space of three days.

“Given we have a fixture here in Cardiff during the World Cup it is very important that we get back into the habit of knowing the dimensions of the ground, feeling comfortable with either chasing or setting and getting our plans right when we are bowling.

“We made a lot of changes today, three guys coming in (Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett and Ben Foakes) and making their debuts, so getting over the line for the guys coming in and playing a young team is important.

“It makes it easier for them to learn and assess their own performance and the team performance in the right way as opposed to looking inwards and blaming themselves for losing a game.”

Morgan has struggled with the bat for club and country in the early part of the summer, with his only half-century on home soil before Sunday’s match coming against Oxford MCCU at the end of March.

And the England captain was particularly pleased to have been able to rely on his experience to get his team over the line and play himself into form.

“My batting has not been good so far this summer,” he explained. “I’ve been searching (for runs) a little bit. Today I was a lot stiller at the crease as opposed to falling over and I managed to get myself in and away and I took advantage of that.

“Experience pays its weight in gold at the end and the stillness I played with today is what I will take away. Sometimes you can get wrapped up talking technique I just love to go out and be able to clear my front leg.”

Although Morgan was pleased with Archer’s debut with the ball, the England seamer claiming 2-29 and a run out from his four over, he felt the bowling unit have lessons to learn.

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