England rounded out their time in Australia and New Zealand with an easy victory over Afghanistan at Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday, but it was never going to be anywhere near enough to put a more positive spin on the campaign.
Blaming coach Peter Moores for England's miserable World Cup showing is 'unfair' and it is the players who need to take 'responsibility' for the team's early exit, captain Eoin Morgan said on Friday.
England rounded out their time in Australia and New Zealand with an easy victory over Afghanistan, at Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday, but it was never going to be anywhere near enough to put a more positive spin on the campaign.
A wave of vitriol has been directed at Moores since England were beaten by Bangladesh on Monday, to be eliminated from contention for the knockout stages of the tournament. Morgan thinks it has been 'misplaced'.
"I certainly think it's not fair," he told reporters. "All the responsibility should fall on the players, it's our responsibility to perform as a side. Particularly when we've performed so badly. If there were little things, and we just weren't able to get over the line, games where we competed and little parts of our game weren't right you could look elsewhere.
"But it's important that we realise as a side where the responsibility lies and where we want to be and how we want to get there.
Also Read:World Cup 2015 England v/s Afghanistan Match Highlights
Morgan said he would like to lead the team into the future and retain the job he was handed when Alastair Cook was dropped at the end of last year. "I think there's going to be a review over the next couple of weeks so I can't determine whether I'll still be captain," he added.
"The hunger is still there to do it. I've learned a lot throughout this tournament, particularly when things haven't gone so well.
The Irishman said he was 'convinced' England had brought the 'right personnel' to the tournament and saw 'no need for any players to be jettisoned or ushered into retirement' because England lost all four matches against test-playing nations. "I think looking ahead, it's important to realise we've had the right personnel, we just haven't clicked," he said. "We haven't guys in form so to speak.
"Things that have let us down throughout this World Cup have been very basic stuff. When we've performed well we've done reasonably well and we've been poor, we've been really poor. When you have a bad day you have to find a way of scrapping or fighting in order to stay in the game but when we've had bad days we've been out of the game more often than not.
Morgan, whose own form with that bat was disappointing, said he would leave Australia with 'no regrets'. "No regrets, absolutely not," he said "We've given it everything and certainly myself, I have," he signed off.
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