England captain Eoin Morgan does not believe a lack of six-hitting power is the root of his side’s Twenty20 struggles.
After losing their recent series 2-1 in the West Indies, England were outclassed in a seven-wicket defeat to the same opponents in their World Twenty20 warm-up in Fatullah, Bangladesh.
They managed only one maximum in a modest total of 131 for seven, Morgan clearing the ropes in the 16th over off Marlon Samuels.
That modest effort was put in the shade by the Windies as they breezed past their target with 23 balls remaining, hitting five 6s along the way.
Morgan’s 43 not out was England’s leading score by a distance, while Chris Gayle’s unbeaten 58 and Dwayne Smith’s fluent 36 broke the back of the chase.
But Morgan rejected the notion that clearing the ropes was the only thing holding his side back in the shorter format, arguing regular boundaries were the key.
“I don’t think that’s the real problem,” said Morgan. “You can never just concentrate on hitting 6s – getting the fours is more important. Around 82% of games are won by the side who hit the most boundaries.
“But we never put ourselves in a position to take their bowling on. They bowled well but we didn’t play well enough to take them on.
“We never really got any substantial partnerships going which was disappointing given the progress we made at the back end of the West Indies trip.
“We found it a bit of a stuttering innings in this game. We were a bit short of par and given the start the West Indies got, we were staring down the barrel a little bit. It was just tough to get going.”
Morgan highlighted the lack of bounce on the sub-continent – particularly fresh off a trip to the Caribbean – as a factor and admits England must learn their lesson soon.
They play their second and final warm-up match against India in Mirpur today before beginning the competition proper against New Zealand on Saturday.
“We know about the lower bounce out here and that’s something we have to adjust to quickly,” he added.
“We’re coming up against a very good India side next who have similar skills to the West Indians. They will go in as favourites but we’ll try to get as much out of the game as we can.
“And if we perform, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t win.”
Bangladesh took a big step to qualifying for the main draw of the World Twenty20 as they beat Nepal by eight wickets. The Nepalese were restricted to 126 for five with Paras Khadka (41) and Sharad Vesawkar (40) their top scorers.
Bangladesh comfortably chased down that total with 28 balls to spare with Anamul Haque (42) and Shakib Al Hasan (37) leading the way.
Victory against Hong Kong in their final match will take Bangladesh through.
Afghanistan claimed their first ever win at the World Twenty20 by seven wickets against Hong Kong in Chittagong.
Captain Mohammad Shahzad’s quickfire 68 and an unbeaten 51 from Shafiqullah, propelled Afghanistan past Hong Kong’s 153 for eight with 12 balls to spare.
Victory keeps Afghani- stan’s faint hopes of reaching the Super 10 stage ahead of their final Group A match against Nepal on Thursday.