Morgan rues failure to build partnerships in SL loss

England captain Eoin Morgan was confident that his team will bounce back after a 20-run defeat to Sri Lanka in the World Cup 2019 match on Friday.

Eoin Morgan was dismissed in Isuru Udana's bowling.

England captain Eoin Morgan looked dejected as he walked in to address the media after his team’s 20-run defeat against Sri Lanka in a World Cup 2019 at Headingley on Friday. Sri Lanka managed to put up a modest total of 232/9 in 50 overs. In reply, England was bowled out for 212 runs.

“We didn’t deserve to win today,” Morgan said.

In it's last three World Cup outings against Sri Lanka, England lost on all the occasions, and Friday was no different.

"We are going to lose games in the group stages. About the other times (defeat), I can't account for all of them but certainly they were different circumstances," the captain said.

Morgan admitted that the lack of partnerships had derailed his team's chase. 

"You look at the basics of a run chase. You know, partnerships are very important. We struggled to get enough partnerships going, or one substantial one. There were a couple of individual innings. But that is not good enough to win a game," he said.

When asked if Friday's defeat will affect the team's morale, Morgan was confident that the team will bounce back.

"No, I don't think it does. I think when we get beaten we tend come back quite strong. We tend to resort to being aggressive, smart, positive cricket, so let's hope that is the case on Tuesday," Morgan said.

England will face arch-rival Australia at Lord's on Tuesday.