Eoin Morgan says England “didn’t play well enough” after going down by 26 runs to the West Indies in Friday’s second ODI.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series on Wednesday, England returned to the Kensington Oval full of confidence and they looked on course to land a second straight win after restricting the Windies to 289-6.
Leg-spinner Adil Rashid grabbed the prized scalp of Chris Gayle (50) but nobody could dismiss the impressive Shimron Hetmyer, who made an unbeaten 104 for his fourth century from 23 ODIs.
Despite losing Jason Roy (2), Jonny Bairstow (0) and Joe Root (36) inside 13 overs, England looked on course for victory after Ben Stokes and Morgan (70) put on a 99-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
However, Stokes’ dismissal for 79 sparked a collapse that saw England slip from 228-5 to 263 all out, losing by 26 runs to allow the Windies to level the series at 1-1.
Captain Morgan spoke about the team’s performance after the match and insists his side were not at the level they needed to be.
“When you get on top, you really need to nail it home – and we didn’t do that,” he was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. “We felt that 290 was well within our capabilities.
We simply didn’t play well enough to win. There’s no sense of ‘we should have won that game’.
“That’s a really good test for us – we need to play extremely competitive games. We’re not going to just turn up and win wherever we go.”
