Joe Root says England have got to take a positive attitude into their must-win World Cup games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Yesterday’s heavy defeat to Sri Lanka, their third in four matches, means Eoin Morgan’s side need to triumph in their final two Pool A fixtures to secure a quarter-final place.
England take on the Tigers at the Adelaide Oval a week today before moving to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the clash with Afghanistan four days later.
The Yorkshireman said: “We have not got a choice, we have got to win the next two games.
“Even if they were the first two games in the tournament, we would still have to win them to go through anyway.
“There is no difference there in preparation, we are still prepared to go out there and don’t want to scrape through, we want to beat them comfortably.
“That is the attitude that we are going to have to take into the next two games.”
Root was England’s standout performer at the Wellington Regional Stadium yesterday, the 24-year-old becoming his country’s youngest World Cup century-maker with a one-day international-best 121 that lifted his side to 309 for six.
The 24-year-old said: “(I was) coming into the game with quite a frustrating run of games behind me, not really contributing like I want to and feel I should, so it was nice to go on and get a big score and put us in a position where we were in the game at half-time.”
82.8 – @joeroot05 ‘s 82.8 is the third highest ODI average in New Zealand, behind AB de Villiers and Greg Chappell, 5+ innings. Settled.
— OptaJim (@OptaJim) March 1, 2015
England’s total was not enough for Sri Lanka, however, Lahiru Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara hitting unbeaten centuries in a comfortable nine-wicket victory.
Root was guilty of handing a life to Thirimanne, dropping the left-hander in the slips on three, before England’s bowlers were left frustrated.
He added: “You are always striving to do what you can to influence the game.
“When you don’t necessarily bowl it is hard to do that, apart from giving everything you can energy-wise in the field and encouragement, trying to make sure you get the best out of the guys that have got the ball in their hand.”
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