SA v ENG 2020: "It creates belief", Morgan talks up significance of England's massive chase 

England pulled off its second highest successful run-chase to win the third and final T20I.

England won with five balls to spare despite chasing a mammoth 223-run target | GettyEngland captain Eoin Morgan believes his team chasing down the mammoth 223-run target successfully in Centurion to seal the three-match T20I series 2-1 against South Africa is a major confidence booster heading towards the T20 World Cup in Australia in October later this year.

This was England's second-highest successful run-chase ever in the history of the format, having chased down 230 runs required for a win in a 2016 T20 World Cup Super 10 game in Mumbai, also versus the Proteas.

Read Also: England fined for slow over-rate offence at Centurion

"It creates belief that you can chase down anything and it reinforces what our method is in chasing big totals down," Morgan told reporters after contributing a superb half-century in his team's victory. "It's a reference point to what we can do, there's no limit on restricting yourself to certain things."

"You want to leave everything out there with the bat. It won't always work but it will give us the best chance of winning. Moving forward from this series, our learning will continue to get better, hopefully, because I don't think we've played at our best in this series."

Apart from the captain, opener Jos Buttler and No.3 Jonny Bairstow also shone through for England with the bat. "There are a couple of key match-ups when you're looking at chasing down scores like that that give the side belief," Morgan said. "One of their key bowlers throughout this series and today would have been [Tabraiz] Shamsi and to take on a guy like that in the way Jonny and Jos did reinforces how good the wicket is and how good those guys are at the crease."

"That creates a lot of belief in the dugout and the changing room that we're not standing back, we're moving forward and trying to get better. If we can continue to do that at key points in the game then we'll become a better side."

Morgan also confirmed that Buttler will continue to bat at the top of the order, helping the side retain a strong top three, also including fellow opener Jason Roy. "If he'd failed today, he still would have been considered in the top three,"  he told Sky Sports. "He's a very fine player. He's got unbelievable ability to take any bowling line-up apart, and to have somebody in your side like that is great."

The skipper likened Buttler's ability to that of Proteas great AB de Villiers. 

"[Jos is] one of our greatest-ever white-ball cricketers. I realise why people talk about him so much, but not in a negative way. I think he has as much talent as someone like AB de Villiers," he said. "It took AB de Villiers a long time and a lot of games to actually get going in a South African shirt. We need to back guys that have that sort of talent."

"I think the priority at the moment is to get the top three as many balls under their belt as they can. They're the most destructive players that we have," Morgan added. "If that changes between now and the World Cup, and we feel the need to fill a gap somewhere, then we might change it, but for the moment it's an extremely destructive batting line-up to play against."

(Inputs from Cricbuzz)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 17 Feb, 2020

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