Abu Dhabi: New Zealand work together as team and their collective strength is their formula to their success, England skipper Eoin Morgan feels on the eve of the semi-final.
“New Zealand as a whole are a very strong team, it’s probably one of their strongest points. They never rely solely on one or two players,” Morgan told the media during pre-match press conference on Tuesday. “It’s always a very collective effort.”
England have managed to reach the semi-finals after winning four of their five Super-12 games despite missing some of the biggest names like Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Tymal Mills and the Jason Roy, the latest casualty.
Both Morgan and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson have mutual respect for their each other and England skipper is not willing to accept the ‘strong favourites’ tag. The reason being the number of injuries the squad has suffered.
“New Zealand have a full-strength squad, we’ve obviously been hampered with a lot of injuries throughout this tournament. The guys are extremely excited about the challenge against New Zealand, but we need to play really good cricket in order to beat them,” Morgan said.
Williamson said: “They’ve [England] got match-winners throughout their team. And that’s been a big, I suppose, movement of their white ball side. Power-packed and bat deep as well… There are a number of threats and number of match-winners. We also have a number of match-winners as well.”
Praise for Livingstone
Both Morgan and Williamson heaped praise on Liam Livingstone. “I’m a big fan of Liam. He’s a guy that has the ability to contribute a bit like Ben, at any stage of the game. And he plays a brand of cricket that makes it easy for him to come in and settle into the side,” Morgan said.
Williamson said: “I spent quite a bit of time with Liam at Birmingham Phoenix, played superbly well through the 100-ball competition.”
Williamson added that Trent Boult and Tim Southee have been brilliant. “They’ve been involved in the team in all formats for a long time and have been executing their skills beautifully and performing to the highest standards. They’ve been doing a fantastic job and a real strength on our side.”
