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Graham Gooch, England’s batting coach, admitted that Kevin Pietersen’s retirement from international limited-overs cricket has opened up a big hole

Nagraj Gollapudi at Edgbaston07-Jun-2012Graham Gooch, England’s batting coach, admitted that Kevin Pietersen’s retirement from international limited-overs cricket has opened up a big hole at the top of the batting order, but insisted it is not so huge that it cannot be filled. Gooch, England’s leading run-scorer in Test cricket, called Pietersen a “box-office player” but did not criticise the decision to step down from ODIs which has also led to the end of his international Twenty20 career.”Kevin is a superb player for England in all forms of the game. He is a great entertainer,” Gooch said. “He is a box-office player that excites the cricketing public not only in this country, but around the world. So before you ask me, is he going to be missed? Sure he is going to be missed. Any player who is capable of winning a match is going to be missed by a team. But he has to make his own decisions. He is the only one who would be able to give true insight into why he decided to retire from ODI cricket.”In a decision that caught everyone by surprise, Pietersen announced on May 31 that he was stepping away from ODI cricket (and, also, effectively Twenty20 as it is part of the ECB contract to be available for both formats) citing “the intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body,” as one of the main reasons. Gooch did not want to be drawn into the issue of the schedules, which has become a talking point in the recent years with players deciding to give up one form of the game in order to extend their tenures in another version.What Gooch, though, was certain about was England needed to move forward and there were good batsmen ready to fill in the vacancy left behind by Pietersen. “Life moves on, one door closes and another one opens. So you got to look at from the team point of view as an opportunity for someone else to make his mark, to represent his country, to win games for his country,” he said. “I look it as an opportunity for another young player to grab that chance, to take that chance and achieve the highest honour of representing his country. I don’t look back, I look forward.”Gooch, himself an opening batsman, was a supporter of Pietersen opening in the one-day game which began at last year’s World Cup before resuming against Pakistan in the UAE where he struck back-to-back hundreds in, what ended up becoming, his final two ODIs. “I was always in favour of Kevin Pietersen opening the batting because I’m always in favour putting your best players in one-day and Twenty20 cricket top of the order; give them all the overs to make an impact,” he said.The England selectors will meet over the next few days to select the ODI squad to face West Indies and Gooch believes there are plenty of options on hand to replace Pietersen, picking out the likes of Craig Kieswetter, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler. “The selectors will be meeting probably in the next day or so and formulating who they think is the best option upfront. We have got some exciting young players around: Kieswetter, Bairstow, Buttler are the guys who have been in and around the Lions and the one-day team. They are not new names, but are the guys I see taking England cricket forward over the next few years.”Kieswetter, who started his England career as an opener, was part of the last ODI series England played, in the UAE, but came in as a middle-order batsman after Pietersen’s move to open. Buttler, a No.6 at Somerset, has played a solitary ODI (against Pakistan in UAE), but is known in the county arena for his innovative batting methods in Twenty20 cricket.Bairstow, who has six ODI caps, made his Test debut against West Indies at Lord’s but his fraught technique against the short delivery raised eyebrows about whether he was the right candidate to come in at No.6 in Tests. Gooch, one of the best players of fast bowling in the 1980s and 90s, said that it was too early to draw conclusions about Bairstow’s technique.”You don’t judge a player on just a few good balls,” he said. “I don’t think there is any player that has ever played Test cricket hasn’t punched one away in front of his face at some stage. Having been there myself, it is not a nice experience. You have to cope with that sort of bowling. I don’t think you make judgements on just a short passage of play.”Gooch did not entirely agree with the theory that Bairstow had not faced the likes of Roach in county cricket but highlighted the pressurised surrounds of the international game as a key difference. “One thing that is not there in county cricket you don’t get the tension you get in Test cricket, the feeling that you have to succeed because everyone is watching you and you are playing at the highest level. So the pressure is that much more at the highest level. That is something every top player, every top sportsman has to cope with: performing under pressure.”

The Sri Lankan sports minister, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, has named a three-member panel to look into Upul Tharanga’s failed doping test

ESPNcricinfo staff30-May-2011The Sri Lankan sports minister, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, has named a three-member panel to look into Upul Tharanga’s failed doping test.”The minister appointed the ministry secretary Udaya Seneviratne, Dr. Geethanjana Mendis and Dr. Maiya Gunasekera to investigate,” Harsha Abeykoon, the sports ministry media spokesman, said. “They will be recording a statement from Tharanga,” .Tharanga is also set to face an ICC inquiry, after testing positive during the 2011 World Cup for the banned substance prednisolone – a drug for asthma, a condition from which he is said to suffer.According to the ICC’s anti-doping code, “It is each player’s personal duty to ensure that no prohibited substance enters his/her body. A player is responsible for any prohibited substance found to be present in his or her sample. Accordingly, it is not necessary that intent, fault, negligence or knowing use on the player’s part be demonstrated in order to establish an anti-doping violation under Article 2.1; nor is the player’s lack of intent, fault, negligence or knowledge a defence to a charge that an anti-doping rule violation has been committed under Article 2.1.”However, if a player needs to take a drug that is on the World Anti-Doping Authority’s (WADA’s) banned list in order to treat an illness, he is required to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). The Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee (TUEC) evaluates all applications for TUEs received by ICC.Under the dope-testing process, if a player’s A sample is found to contain a banned substance, he will have the option of asking for his B sample to be tested as well. If his B sample is also found to be positive, then the player could face a provisional suspension until the ICC carries out its inquiry; if the B sample is negative, the investigation is discontinued. It is uncertain how far into the process the ICC is with regard to the Sri Lanka cricketer.

Nottinghamshire tightened their grip at the top of the Friends Provident t20 North Group with their ninth win in 12 games, beating Leicestershire by seven wickets in a high-scoring match at Grace Road

04-Jul-2010

ScorecardNottinghamshire tightened their grip at the top of the Friends Provident t20 North Group with their ninth win in 12 games, beating Leicestershire by seven wickets in a high-scoring match at Grace Road. The Outlaws chased down a target of 183 with nine balls to spare as Ali Brown and Matthew Wood led the victory charge with quickfire half-centuries.It was the Foxes’ fifth home defeat in a row despite a brilliant century from Australian Brad Hodge that steered them to a competitive total of 182 for 3. But with Brown hammering 55 off 34 balls and Wood hitting 61 off 37 balls the Outlaws made light work of the runs chase on an easy paced pitch.The innings of the match however came from Hodge who scored his first Twenty20 century for the Foxes off 65 balls with seven fours and four sixes before being run out for 103. The Australian, who played for the Foxes in 2003 and 2004 and has rejoined them this season for the t20 competition, had a previous best score of 97 that he made in his first game seven years ago.Hodge and James Taylor shared a third wicket partnership of 121 in 12 overs to gain the initiative after the Outlaws had the Foxes at 44 for 2 in the seventh over. Both batsmen produced some dazzling stroke play and brutal hitting as the Foxes scored 116 runs off the last 10 overs with 70 runs coming off the final five.Hodge, after reaching his 50 off 40 balls with four fours and a six, stepped up the pace with a blistering second half century as Taylor joined in the big hitting, contributing an unbeaten 56 off 38 balls. It needed a magnificent throw from Scott Elstone to run out Hodge but Leicestershire’s score looked good enough to set Notts a stern challenge.But the Foxes’ bowling never matched the quality of their batting and the Outlaws paced the run chase perfectly. Openers Alexander Hales and Brown scored 47 in the first five overs and then Wood joined Brown in a stand of 74 off seven overs that took the game away from the home side.Brown blazed 50 off 32 balls including three sixes and two other boundaries and Wood’s 50 came off just 29 balls. Even when Brown fell to a catch at cover off the bowling of Nathan Buck the Foxes were unable to stem the flow of runs and, after Wood’s departure for 61, Samit Patel and Steven Mullaney saw the Outlaws safely through to victory with nine balls to spare.

India vice-captain looking forward to forging opening partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jul-20241:05

Gill: We’re the world champions and we have to play like that

Shubman Gill, India’s vice-captain in ODIs and T20Is, has said he aims to improve his performance in the shortest format, as the team begins to build towards defending their T20 World Cup title in 2026.”My performance in T20Is before the World Cup this year wasn’t how I had expected it to be,” Gill said ahead of the series opener against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. “Hopefully, going forward, in the upcoming cycle – I think we play 30-40 T20Is [before the next T20 World Cup] – I can improve my performance when it comes to batting, and also [we can improve] as a team.”Gill was a reserve player and not part of the squad that just won the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies, where India opened with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. With both senior batters now retired from T20Is, Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was the back-up opener at the World Cup, are now first choice for India at the top of the order”We really enjoy batting with each other. Especially the kind of shots we play, we kind of complement each other,” Gill said of his partnership with Jaiswal. “Being a right-left combination, we have had good partnerships in whatever T20Is we have played before; two partnerships have been 150-plus [too]. So we have a great understanding and communication between us, and I have fun batting with him.”Related

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Gill and Jaiswal strung a couple of big partnerships in the T20Is in Zimbabwe after the T20 World Cup 2024 ended. Gill, who was India’s stand-in captain that series, top-scored with 170 runs at a strike rate of 125.92 in five innings. He was then appointed vice-captain for the limited-overs series in Sri Lanka, selected ahead of other opening contenders like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma, who had scored a hundred in Zimbabwe.The series in Sri Lanka is also Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as India coach after he succeeded Rahul Dravid, whose coaching tenure ended after the T20 World Cup triumph.”We have had just two net sessions together, and this is the first time I am working with him,” Gill said about Gambhir the coach. “But whatever he has told me during these two sessions, his intent and communication have been very clear – he knows what he wants from which player, and what he thinks will work for each player.”India play three T20Is against Sri Lanka in Pallekele on July 27, 28 and 30, followed by three ODIs in Colombo on August 2, 4 and 7.

Rossington’s 69 in vain as Gladiators smash 60 runs in 3.5 overs to seal a win and keep their chances alive

Danyal Rasool06-Mar-2023For the second time this season, Karachi Kings were on the cusp of victory against Quetta Gladiators, only to watch as Martin Guptill wrenched it violently out of their hands. On February 18, it was a century in the first innings. Today, an unbeaten 56-ball 86 saw Guptill shepherd his side as wickets fell at the other end before cranking through the gears in the final four overs to all but eliminate Kings while keeping the Gladiators’ faint hopes of making it to the playoffs alive.For the first 15 overs of the chase, it was painfully evident why Gladiators find themselves at the wrong end of the points table. There was little by way of intent of quality chasing a below par total against an underwhelming Karachi bowling attack. Mohammad Nawaz, promoted to No. 3 after Omaid Yousaf fell early, only managed a scratchy 15 before Mohammad Musa dismissed him. Iftikhar Ahmed continued to struggle with form, trapped in front by Tabraiz Shamsi; the review had a smaller chance of success than a lottery ticket. Shamsi followed it up by dismissing Najibullah Zadran while James Fuller sent back Umar Akmal cheaply, reducing Quetta to 63 for 5 inside ten overs.Guptill was around at the other end, but there was little to serve as a harbinger of what would follow in the final five overs. Aside from that hundred against Karachi, runs at the PSL haven’t really come for him, a continuation of a trend that has seen him lose form over the last year or so. He had shuffled along to 41 off 40, but the moment he walloped Mohammad Amir for a six in the 16th over, things appeared to fall into place.But the coup de grace was the 17th over, where a hapless Fuller was brutalised for 24 runs in an over, two sixes and three fours changing the course of the game. Musa copped plenty of punishment in the over that followed with another six and four, and Amir leaked 11 in his over to leave eight off the 20th.Sarfaraz Ahmed, who had watched passively from the other end, was run out in a mix-up, but by now, it was too late for Kings. Dwaine Pretorius came in and slapped two boundaries in three balls to seal the win, ensuring Gladiators continue to have hopes of an unlikely final four berth.Earlier, Gladiators had begun well as Naseem Shah removed Kings’ platinum pick Matthew Wade off the first ball. Much of the top order failed to have much of an impact, with Tayyab Tahir and Qasim Akram falling to Aimal Khan, before a sluggish innings from Shoaib Malik ground any Kings momentum to a halt. Any momentum that existed was thanks largely to a lone hand from Adam Rossington, whose 69 formed the spine of the innings, enabling his side to set up for a big finish at the death. That finish was provided by Imad Wasim and Amir Yamin who scored 51 in the final five to give their side a total they could look to defend.For three-quarters of the chase, they were having no problems defending it. But Guptill was a sleeping dragon at that stage, and when he awoke, the Kings could only watch as a wretched PSL campaign went up in smoke.

Nazmul Islam impresses with maiden four-for as Sylhet record first win

Mohammad Isam25-Jan-2022Sylhet Sunrisers 100 (Mahmudullah 33, Nazmul 4-18) beat Minister Group Dhaka 101 for 3 (Anamul 45, Mashrafe 2-21) by seven wicketsHow the match played out
Sylhet Sunrisers opened their account in BPL 2022 with a seven-wicket win over Minister Group Dhaka. It was a clinical win, too. They skittled Dhaka for 100 in 18.4 overs and then knocked off the runs with three overs to spare.Left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam took his maiden four-for in T20s to hasten the collapse. However, two of his four scalps were aided by poor lbw calls.Mohammad Naim was given out despite getting a glove while attempting a reverse sweep, while Andre Russell was sent back despite getting an inside edge onto his front pad. Tamim Iqbal, too, seemed unsatisfied with his lbw decision; the ball having appeared to have struck him even though he was well forward.Dhaka went up in a protest as Mahmudullah was seen talking to the on-field umpires, even as some of their other players engaged with the fourth umpire. The absence of DRS suddenly became a massive talking point.Sylhet made light work of the chase, though, with Anamul Haque hitting 45. He fell with two to win, before Ravi Bopara hit the winning runs.Big hit
It was Sylhet’s bowling that put Dhaka on the back foot. Sohag Gazi and captain Mosaddek Hossain reduced them to 17 for three in the sixth over. Gazi finished early, taking 2 for 17 off his four overs.Nazmul continued the good work by bowling stump-to-stump. He removed Naim and Russell in the 13th over. His third scalp was that of Mahmudullah caught at short fine-leg, before trapping Shuvagata Hom lbw for 21.The spinners dried up the boundaries, as Dhaka managed their first six only in the 16th over. Taskin Ahmed then rounded off the innings with three late strikes, finishing with 3 for 22 from his 2.4 overs.Big miss
Dhaka’s top four had another poor outing, of particular concern being Naim and Jahurul Islam, who are yet to fire.

The Tridents’ batting woes continued as they slumped to 89 for 9 followed by curious tactics in the field

Peter Della Penna04-Sep-2020A year ago when their season was on the line in danger of missing the playoffs, the Barbados Tridents rallied with a string of stirring performances spearheaded by a canny bowling attack to propel them not only into the playoffs but to the tournament title. But in 2020, the Tridents arsenal of big name bowlers could not cover up a patchwork batting order in another must-win situation at Brian Lara Academy as they completed a hat-trick of sub-100 batting totals, including back-to-back displays against the Guyana Amazon Warriors who knocked out the defending champions by six wickets with 34 balls to spare.The Amazon Warriors were playing their third match in three days, two of them against the Tridents. But the defending champions could not find a solution to improve upon their 92 all out performance from 48 hours earlier, somehow faring worse off by three runs. The lack of spirit with the bat spread to the field as an absence of slip fielders meant two possible catches went unclaimed.After an expensive first over in the third, marquee spinner Rashid Khan was not brought back until the target was down to 23. Fellow legspinner Hayden Walsh Jr, the 2019 CPL Player of the Tournament, grazed the boundary for the entirety of the chase despite having figures of 4 for 28 in six overs bowled across the Tridents’ previous two matches.Shepherding the wickets columnTraditionally held back until the death by captain Chris Green, Romario Shepherd was given a chance in the Powerplay and the move paid off almost immediately to spark another top-order slide. Shepherd conceded a first-ball boundary cracked through point, but when Johnson Charles tried to repeat the shot next ball, the delivery didn’t come onto the bat as cleanly and wound up fluttering to Ross Taylor at point. Khan was promoted to No. 3 as a pinch-hitter in an effort to shake up a slumbering line-up, but it had no impact. A top-edged pull first ball found the hands of Brandon King diving spectacularly on the square-leg rope to put Shepherd on a hat trick.Green and Imran Tahir continued to chip away at the middle order before Shepherd came back and struck two balls after the drinks break for his third wicket as Jason Holder’s ill-advised heave down the ground found Green at long-on to make it 39 for 6. Though not as dire as their position of 27 for 8 from two nights earlier, it was still too steep to climb out of.Just like Tuesday night, it was left to Mitchell Santner to perform CPR on the innings, teaming with Nyeem Young for a 30-run stand as both men jointly top-scored with 18. But after Santner fell the Tridents tail could manage just 20 runs off the last 25 deliveries in the innings as Shepherd and Naveen-ul-Haq kept them off balance with regular changes of pace.Where’s the desperation?Based on some of the field settings and bowling choices, a viewer would have a hard time believing that the Tridents were fighting to keep their season alive. After a first ball wide, Santner claimed Brandon King for a golden duck by slipping an arm ball through the gate. Three balls later, Santner appeared to have Chandrapaul Hemraj trapped for another duck with one that straightened to beat the bat, but his lbw shout was denied.Luck deserted Santner and the Tridents again when Hemraj was dropped on 14 at deep midwicket by Walsh Jr on a difficult lunging chance along the rope after having covered 25 yards running left. Hemraj finally fell for 29 in the fifth, as another heave for midwicket off Holder’s medium pace resulted in an edge that flew to Young at deep third man. Holder then induced an edge behind to start the seventh to claim Sherfane Rutherford.But with the Tridents needing to push as hard as possible for wickets, Holder curiously opted to not give Raymon Reifer a slip when bowling to Shimron Hetmyer at the start of the eighth over and an edge flew past wicketkeeper Charles’ diving effort for four. After Reifer dismissed Pooran with a skied chance in the ring, Young similarly induced an edge off Hetmyer in the ninth which would have carried comfortably to slip, had there been one in place.Their most expensive overseas player and the No. 1 bowler on the T20I rankings, Khan was kept out of the attack after some early punishment from Hemraj and wasn’t given a chance to attack any incoming batsmen until the match was nearly finished. Walsh Jr had it even worse. After dropping the early chance on the rope, he was never brought into the attack. It was a stark reversal of fortunes for the leading wicket-taker from the 2019 tournament and symbolised the wayward 2020 campaign for the Tridents as a whole.

Walsh was concerned about the injuries picked up by Bangladesh’s players, including Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin and Abu Jayed

Mohammad Isam22-Apr-2019Bangladesh bowling coach Courtney Walsh wants fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman to be given enough time to recover from his ankle injury, and not be used too much during the tri-series in Ireland next month. Walsh suggested that given Mustafizur’s habit of picking up small injuries, he should be geared towards his work for the World Cup, which begins two weeks after the Ireland tour.Speaking after the side’s first training session in Dhaka before leaving for Ireland, Walsh was concerned about the injury worries to some of his pace bowlers. Apart from Mustafizur, Rubel Hossain has a side strain while Mohammad Saifuddin is suffering from a tennis elbow. Even Abu Jayed is said to have picked up a niggle.But it is Mustafizur who has had such an impact in the Bangladesh bowling line-up after the 2015 World Cup and is the biggest concern ahead of the next big event in England.”[Mustafizur] has got a big role to play in the World Cup, once he is fit,” Walsh said. “But I don’t think we rely on any one player. Shakib [Al Hasan], Mash [Mashrafe Mortaza] and Rubel have been consistent. Fizz hasn’t been as sharp since his injury, and he keeps picking up slight niggles. A fully fit Mustafizur can win games for you but we have to have him as fit as possible. We have a bit of time on our side. My concern is that I hope we don’t over-rush him, and probably use him too much in Ireland, and he is not fresh for the World Cup.”Out of the five we have three injured – Fizz, Rubel and Saifuddin, who has the tennis elbow. We need to get them back into bowling, within the right frame of mind, and be sharp enough to do a bit of bowling in Ireland and be ready for the World Cup. We have Taskin Ahmed, Khaled Ahmed and Shafiul Islam as well [for back-up]. You can probably say that we have them just in case we need them.”Walsh said that playing the tournament in England, where the pitches are mostly expected to help the batsmen, will require the pace bowlers to not just have skills, but also know when and where to use them. “It will be a big challenge. The World Cup is going to be long tournament,” Walsh said. “There are going to be some good cricket wickets, which are batting-friendly. We have to be intelligent, and try to execute well.”We have to read the conditions and the surfaces we play. Some places the ball might swing more than others. We have to assess when we get there. Most of the wickets will be docile and flat. We have to work on our variations and execution.”Everybody studies one another these days, so they know our strengths and weaknesses. Likewise, we also know theirs. So it is about execution on the day, and try to be smart.”Walsh said that the progress shown by someone like Saifuddin, whose bowling has evidently improved in recent months, had excited him.”He has come along tremendously. He has bowled very well,” Walsh said. “He is a very excitable allrounder. His form in the domestic tournament has been very good. His confidence is quite good. He is keen to do what he is doing. If we can get him fully fit with the tennis elbow being solved, it will be a big plus for us as well.”

The only new addition is Gauteng’s 21-year old offspinner Raisibe Ntozakhe. Marcia Letsoalo, who last played over a year ago at the World Cup Qualifiers, is the only exclusion from the 2017-18 list

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2018In what could be seen as a sign of continuity looking ahead to the next cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship and the Women’s World T20 to be played in West Indies later this year, Cricket South Africa have offered contracts to 13 of the 14 players from the 2017-18 season.The only new addition is Gauteng’s 21-year old offspinner Raisibe Ntozakhe. Marcia Letsoalo, the 33-year-old fast bowler who last played over a year ago at the World Cup Qualifiers, is the only exclusion from the list. The new contracts will come into effect on May 1 and run up to April 30, 2019.South Africa, who hosted India for a limited-overs series in February, have a busy 14 months coming up. They next host Bangladesh in May before touring England and West Indies for the second and third round of championship matches. The World T20 and a home series against Sri Lanka will follow that.”The esteem in which our women’s team is held following their successful campaign when they reached the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s World Cup last year is reflected in their invitation to have a major tour of England including a T20 triangular series against England and New Zealand,” said Corrie van Zyl, CSA’s general manager. “It is important that we build on our recent successes as we prepare for this year’s Women’s World T20.CSA contracts list for 2018-19: Dane van Niekerk, Ayabonga Khaka, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Mignon du Preez, Shabnim Ismail, Trisha Chetty, Chloe Tryon, Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt, Masabata Klaas, Andrie Steyn, Mosaline Daniels, Raisibe Ntozakhe

England captain Eoin Morgan says his bowlers were badly let down by their batsmen after a collapse of 8 for 8 sealed a 75-run defeat to India in the third T20I at Bangalore

Deivarayan Muthu in Bangalore01-Feb-20171:30

‘We fell away terribly towards the end’ – Morgan

England lost 10 for 83 in the last innings in the second Test in Visakhapatnam. They lost 5 for 70 in the first innings in the third Test in Mohali. They lost 7 for 54 in their second innings in the fourth Test in Mumbai. The visitors then suffered a more cataclysmic fall in their second innings in the fifth Test in Chennai, losing 10 for 104 after piling on 477 in their first dig.The limited-overs players then roused the side from its gloom after Christmas, pushing India in 50-over cricket and proceeded to go 1-0 up in the subsequent T20 series. England were then at the receiving end of two incorrect umpiring decisions and lost the second T20. In the series decider in Bangalore, they unravelled dramatically against legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and left to head home empty-handed.England experienced a fair share of collapses on this gruelling tour, but losing 8 for 8 on Wednesday night was as chaotic as it could get. Their breezy start to the chase – they were 119 for 2 in the 14th over in pursuit of 203 – starkly contrasted with what was to follow. The two set batsmen – Joe Root and captain Eoin Morgan – were dismissed by Chahal in successive balls and England eventually suffered the second-worst eight-wicket collapse in international cricket to be rolled over for 127 with 21 balls to spare in their innings.England captain Eoin Morgan cut a sorry figure at the post-match press conference, but did not mince any words about his team’s batting performance.”It does hurt. Very disappointing,” Morgan said. “Maybe 60% of the game we were competitive and right in amongst it but fell away terribly in the end. Committed a cardinal sin of losing two in-players in one over and allowed India to build a little bit of pressure and we weren’t up to it at all.”So what really went wrong in the middle?”I can’t put a finger on it. We haven’t produced a batting performance as bad as that in two or two-and-a-half years,” Morgan said. “We pride ourselves on our batting, it has been a strong suit for a long time but this series our bowlers have outperformed our batsmen I think.”Morgan, who had played for Royal Challengers Bangalore for a season in the IPL in 2010, believed that England were on track to exploit the flat surface and the short boundaries at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium at the halfway mark of the chase. Root bedded himself in, and Morgan himself hinted at hitting full tilt with three sixes from Suresh Raina’s part-time offbreaks in three balls during the 12th over.”I thought we were going quite well,” Morgan said. “A majority of the runs at this ground are always scored in the last 10 overs. Bangalore have done it extremely well for a long period of time and India did well today. So, I think we needed 110 [sic 117] off the last 10 maybe with eight wickets in the shed.”Morgan said that England could have chased the target down had he or Root kicked on with contributions from the lower-middle order.”If a better performance from either me or Joe – a 70 or 80 from me or him and if the two of us seeing off – and a couple of guys batting around us could have made a huge difference,” Morgan said.England’s sharp nosedive began with Morgan galloping down the track, fetching a slog-sweep from outside off and skying a wrong’un to deep midwicket. He backed his intent but blamed the execution for the dismissal.”It wasn’t necessarily a big shot,” Morgan said. “It wasn’t executed that well, I didn’t mean to hit it in the air. The ball – it was a googly – held up a little bit. I wanted to hit down the ground, but hit it squarer.”Morgan also conceded that losing a close ODI series “hurt” more than losing the T20 series, but was confident of recovering from the setbacks.”We had performances in the one-day series that were potentially worthy of winning,” he said. “In this series probably the last game [in Nagpur] hurt us more. The game got away from us, we should have won. Today we underperformed and we weren’t good enough.”I don’t think [there will be a lingering feeling]. If there was a consistent run of performances like that it would hurt to fail again. But like I said, our batting has been outstanding for a long time and tonight it wasn’t anywhere near as it should be.”