By Nasser Hussain for the Daily Mail
Published: 20:43 BST, 25 June 2019 | Updated: 20:43 BST, 25 June 2019
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It is not often I disagree with Eoin Morgan but he said after this defeat by Australia on Tuesday that England bowled well without luck at Lord’s. I don’t think they did.
Yes, England went past the edge a few times after winning the toss in perfect bowling conditions but the reason for that was they were bowling short of a good length. How many of those balls would have hit the stumps? Not nearly enough.
Perhaps Morgan is just trying to back his bowlers up rather than chastise them because England are not out of the World Cup yet but this leaves them very vulnerable.
Eoin Morgan came to the defence of his players by saying England bowled well at Lord's
It was left to Australia in the form of the left-armers Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff to show England how it should be done - pitch it up on a full length and get the batsmen coming forward to bring caught, bowled and lbw all into play.
Australia adjusted to conditions while England could not. They went with Behrendorff ahead of Nathan Coulter-Nile and then handed him the new ball over Pat Cummins. They knew they needed someone to swing it into England’s pads and Behrendorff obliged.
England, meanwhile, have gone with pace and hit the deck bowlers in this tournament and left out someone who pitches it up and tries to swing it in David Willey but you can’t tell me the likes of Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer cannot adjust.
Mitchell Starc got the all-important wicket of Ben Stokes as Australia won by 64 runs
There are some mitigating circumstances. Wood and Archer looked to be struggling with the footholes when it was a bit damp at the start of the Australian innings and it was noticeable how they got better when it dried out and caught up pretty well.
But by then it was too late. The game was well on the way to being lost when England decided to bowl and then let Australia
