England captain Eoin Morgan attributed his team’s turnaround in the 2019 World Cup to not getting desperate when they were pushed into a corner.

England were under the pump after back-to-back defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia left them facing must-wins against India and New Zealand – two quality opponents they hadn’t beaten at the World Cup in 27 years.

But England rediscovered their old, belligerent one-day form to post tall scores against both teams and successfully defend them to make the semi-finals for the first time since 1992.

“I think we sort of knew that coming into the tournament, the difficult challenge in applying that to World Cup games is that it is just a one-off game,” Morgan said after their 119-run win over New Zealand. “It lends itself more for you to be, whatever the way you play, it should be the extremity of that on the day because you don’t get another chance and it’s taken us time to get to grips with that.”

“We do stick to our mantra the whole time and not actually be cagey or desperate. It doesn’t work for us and it won’t win us the World Cup.”

In both of England’s two most recent wins, their opening duo of Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy had a big part to play. England won the toss both times and, as has been the norm this tournament, opted to make first use of the surface.

Roy returned from a hamstring injury against India, which had kept him out of the defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia. In Roy’s absence, both Bairstow and England’s form dipped, but in his first game back, Roy and Bairstow strung together 160 for the first wicket, with the latter notching a century.

“It [the pitch] probably changed about sort of the halfway stage of the England innings, but they played extremely well, and when they do have momentum, often it can be a big challenge regardless of the surface to stop. So they put us under a lot of pressure and hit through the line nicely.

“Taking early wickets against anybody that you come up against is the best way to stem momentum. Trying to be aggressive with the ball in hand to give yourself the opportunity to take those wickets is the best way to try and stop anybody from getting away from you.”

In the event that New Zealand do make the semi-final, Williamson said he wants the team to play with freedom. “If you are in a knockout stage where it’s the semi-final opportunity, certainly on the day anything can happen. And we know from our perspective that we haven’t put up our best performance yet and we know when we do that, it gives us the best chance of beating anybody.”

“If we are fortunate to be in a semi-final, then we do have a little bit of a break and we need the guys to have that freshness to go out and play with freedom.”

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