Morgan blames batting for Australia mauling

Following his team's 112-run defeat against Australia in the Carlton Mid Tri-Series final on Sunday, England captain Eoin Morgan insisted it wasn't the fear of Mitchell Johnson that led to the mauling at Perth's WACA.

Returning from a hamstring injury, the Aussie pacer took three quick wickets of James Taylor, Moeen Ali and Morgan to reduce England to 46 for 4 in their chase of 279. However, Morgan played down the Johnson factor and said poor batting was responsible for the humiliating defeat.

"I think it probably could have been anybody bowling," Morgan told reporters after the match. "I dont think he [Johnson] swung it. We put ourselves under pressure and I don't know why we performed like that.

"We chatted about the opposition very briefly as we've played against them so much in the past, but I don't think we were threatened that much.

"We were poor. We didn't help ourselves with some of the decisions we made and the shots we played. Our batting let us down."

Australia too had a tough time batting, and at one time were 60 for 4 before partnerships of 141 (between Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh) and 45 (between James Faulkner and Johnson) for the fifth and eighth wickets respectively helped them reach a challenging 278 for 8. Morgan admitted his team failed to get any partnership going. "A top score of 33 [from Ravi Bopara] just isn't good enough and we have to take that on the chin and look at the reasons why it happened," Morgan said.

"We didn't put any partnerships together and put any pressure on the Australia bowlers so we didn't really get into the position where we could have a go at their total."

England start their ICC World Cup campaign against Australia on February 14 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Morgan said his team's three defeats against Australia in the tri-series will have no bearing on the World Cup encounter.

"I think the pressure builds on Australia from that perspective," Morgan said. "They're a home side in their first game of the World Cup, playing against a dangerous side. We're going out all guns blazing, so there's no pressure from our point of view.

"We have made huge strides from where we were and huge credit goes to some guys' individual performances. We now play Pakistan and the West Indies and that will be a great opportunity to get some match time under our belt and also adapt to conditions."