England captain Eoin Morgan praises record-breaking openers
England captain Eoin Morgan heaps praise on openers, who both recorded career-best ODI scores and admitted he has "never experienced anything like it" as the hosts beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the second ODI at Edgbaston.
"That chase was absolutely remarkable," Morgan said. "I've never experienced anything like it. We were so in control without being reckless. The two boys were outstanding. They were very imposing and they played brilliant, very entertaining cricket."
On England's plan with the ball, the captain said: "I said after Trent Bridge that we were way-off with the ball. Here, I didn't think we did anything exceptional, but we did the basics well. It didn't swing or nip off the seam and there are always huge challenges in one-day cricket when that doesn't happen.
"But we starved them of runs. We banged out a length and we used our bouncers well. We built pressure that way which resulted in us taking wickets. It was brilliant.
"It was a lesson for us last year when we played against Australia. They are a really good at doing that and we picked up that we needed to be better at it."
Roy, who recorded his first international century in England admitted the bowlers deserve all the praise. The hosts took an unassailable 13-3 lead in the series and Morgan wasn't one to forget the first match tie, too quickly.
"I emphasised after that game that it was our get out of jail free card," Morgan said. "We played very poorly as a team, but a few individuals performed exceptionally well and did enough that we went unscathed. A six off the last ball doesn't happen very often."
We didn't get enough runs: Mathews
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews was left to reflect on another poor batting display.
"Simply we didn't get enough runs on the board for our bowlers to get them out," Mathews said. "It was a belter of a wicket. 256 was below par; 300 is a must on that wicket. It played brilliantly. It was a little bit slow in the first half but it got better and better so we fell short by 50 or 60 runs.
"We have to try to flush it out of the system and forget about this game as quickly as possible because we've got only one day to come back and play pretty well.
"Our batsmen are in good nick and unfortunately they get 20s and 30s and getting run out is absolutely not on. And it is unfortunate that it has been happening the last two games and hopefully we can run well in the next three games and not give run outs to the opposition."
While he praised both Jason Roy and Alex Hales, he admitted that the bowlers weren't penetrative enough. Sri Lanka will look to draw level as they head into the third ODI on Sunday.