England captain Eoin Morgan admitted that the prospect of losing injured opener Jason Roy for the Twenty World Cup semi-finals “really spoils the mood” in the team. Roy, 31, suffered a calf injury and fell to the ground while chasing a swift 10-run loss to South Africa on Saturday.
Despite the defeat, England made it to the semi-finals on net run rate with Australia, while South Africa were eliminated. Morgan, who saw pacer Tymal Mills ruled out of the tournament earlier this week, said: “We’re disappointed for Jason, but it’s also half our hope that he’s okay.” It’s been two people and two games, it really hurts the mood.”
South Africa posted 189 for two, with Rassie van der Dussen scoring an unbeaten 94, but needed to restrict England to less than 131 runs to give Australia a run-rate lead in the semi-finals. David Malan, who scored 33, and Liam Livingstone, who scored 28, kept England in the hunt after Roy retired hurt for 20. But Kagiso Rabada’s hat-trick from the last over ended England at 178-9.
England came into the tournament without Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer. Morgan said the team has enough back up to deal with injuries and pull outs. “Like you go through names that aren’t here either because of injury or other reasons, so you go through Archer, Stokes, Sam Curran, Ben (Fox), Tymal and now possibly Jason,” Morgan said.
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“You look at the time you’ve really explored and tried to build a great team, and I’m here to be grateful that we’ve actually done that because we need those guys in the next game or final.” Roy has scored 123 runs in the World Cup with a best of 61. Since the start of 2008, he has scored 1,316 runs in the format with seven half-centuries.
Read also | Jason Roy in tears after being injured during South Africa clash – WATCH
Morgan, who scored 17 runs and was one of Rabada’s hat-trick wickets, said he was yet to see any match from his potential opponents. “So as a preparation for every game, I will go through the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition, I will watch the relevant games,” he said. “So I haven’t seen much from the other group. So I’ll finish the next day. Let someone else worry about it.”
England are looking to become double world champions after Morgan’s team beat New Zealand in the 50-over World Cup final in 2019.
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