England captain Eoin Morgan talked in praise of his team's pair of quicks, Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer, after their outstanding performance paved way for hosts' return to the winning ways against Australia.
Staring at a defeat that would've sealed the three-match series 2-0 after posting only 231/9 in 50 overs, Archer and Woakes bowled terrific spells of 3/34 and 3/32 in their respective 10-over quotas.
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Especially worth lauding was how they helped England comeback in the match despite the visitors once finding themselves 144/2 with captain Aaron Finch and Marnus Labuschagne well set.
Morgan brought back his two best bowlers and was immediately rewarded as the Australians lost their last eight wickets for just 63 runs.
"Jofra is obviously an ace and so is Woakesy. It's our strongest suit," said Morgan after the win. "You like to bowl them in the most important parts of the game and I felt at the time I brought them back that was the most important part because the game was edging away from us."
"I think it was getting to a stage where we needed to make a move. Finch and Marnus made it look easier than it was. So I threw everything at it."
"For Jof and Woaksey to come back like that was outstanding. When they bowl like that they make the captain look good."
Apart from Woakes and Archer, on the day where wrist-spinner Adil Rashid didn't quite find his best rhythm, Curran brothers, Tom and Sam, also played their part by never allowing the Aussies to run away with the game from their end.
Morgan said Australia's collapse was all down to one of England's more impressive overall bowling performances than any lose shot-making on a used surface at the Old Trafford in Manchester.
"Australia didn't make too many mistakes. It was lbws and bowled -- it either nipped or swung back. That's a bowler getting a batsman out."
"When you make inroads like that it sends quite a big message for the guys coming in about how difficult it is out there."
Tom, recognising the nature of the deck, kept bowling cross-seam deliveries targetting the stumps, while Sam came on at the death, an area where Morgan would've normally used Archer and Woakes, and provided the breakthroughs that basically finished off the match.
"This might be underselling them but it's the truth. Every time they come in there is a level of competitiveness that is more visual than any other player -- that's the character of the Curran brothers," the skipper said.
Australia's vice-captain, pacer Pat Cummins came out in defence of his team's batting line-up and said the visiting attack should've been better when lower-order batsmen Tom and Rashid launched England's recovery act from 149/8 to the eventual score past the 230-mark.
"I thought we bowled really well and then let them off the hook," said Cummins. "We could have kept them under 200 or 180, so we gave them an extra 40 or 50 runs."
"We were obviously really happy when Aaron and Marnus were going along nicely but I heard the commentators say 'they're going along beautifully, they're walking it home'.
"None of us were thinking that. We knew the last 80 or 90 runs were going to be hard work on that wicket. But it was a tough finish in the end," he signed off.
The series-decider will be played on Wednesday (September 16).
(Inputs from AFP)
