Morgan plays down form concerns

Eoin Morgan has insisted he is not concerned with his form despite another failure with the bat.

Morgan, the England captain, was dismissed for a duck as England slumped to a 111-run defeat against Australia in their opening match of the World Cup. It means he has now been dismissed by six of the last 25 balls he has faced in all cricket with a run of scores that reads 0, 2, 0, 0, 0. Against Australia he has been dismissed four times in the last nine balls he has faced and without scoring a run.

But he reasoned that the manner of dismissals suggested that he was not suffering from a technical fault as much as he was simply enduring a run of poor fortune.

"After that dismissal I don't think so," he said when asked whether he was concerned by his form. "I toe-ended a pull.

"I'm quite honest with things normally. I'm a nick-off candidate massively. If I was nicking off every ball then I'd be worried. But I'm not. I'm getting out in different ways. Moving forward I'll be trying to spend as much time in the middle as possible."

Morgan did admit to frustration at England's performance, though. In particular, he expressed disappointment at England's fielding after they dropped two chances in the first five overs of the game - including centurion Aaron Finch before he had scored - and his side's death bowling, with England conceding 102 runs in the final nine overs of the Australia innings.

"The most frustrating thing is that we made errors that we haven't been making this trip," he said. "Things we've been doing well for the last month let us down today.

"We got two chances really early, which was frustrating more than anything else. Australia played well, but we had opportunities to take the game to them and we didn't take them. Then our plans [in the death overs] were reasonably good, but the execution was poor."

The only consolation was the batting of James Taylor, who finished unbeaten on 98 after an umpiring error denied him the chance of a maiden international century.

"It was outstanding," Morgan said. "It was typical James Taylor. He got himself in, scored in different areas and managed to take advantage of being in. These are qualities we're looking for - guys who can not only get 60 or 40 but guys who can go on and potentially win a game for us."

England fly to Wellington on Monday night and play their next match, against New Zealand, on Friday.