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Cricket World Cup: Eoin Morgan tells England to add consistency to their game and end group stages with New Zealand win

Eoin Morgan is backing England to beat New Zealand and confirm their place in the World Cup semi-finals.

The hosts were overwhelming favourites to challenge for home World Cup glory entering the tournament, and started well despite an early setback against Pakistan.

But it was not until the consecutive defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia that serious question marks were raised.

Morgan’s men, though, beat India by 31 runs to put real concerns behind them ahead of a clash with fellow top-four team New Zealand on Wednesday.

"You can get too carried away, lured into worrying about consequences," the England shorter-form captain told BBC Sport.

"We'll be extremely competitive tomorrow and hopefully we can win. We're in this situation because we haven't played consistently well enough.

"It's not the end of the tournament, it's a huge opportunity for us to go on and play against a strong side like we did against India."

READ MORE: Jonny Bairstow leads England to crucial win against India to boost hosts' hopes of semi-finals
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England's Eoin Morgan gestures during the ICC Cricket World Cup group stage match at Edgbaston, Birmingham. (Photo by Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images)
England's Eoin Morgan gestures during the match against India. (Photo by Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images)
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - JUNE 30: Eoin Morgan of England(R) reacts during the Group Stage match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between England and India at Edgbaston on June 30, 2019 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Gareth Copley-IDI/IDI via Getty Images)
Eoin Morgan reacts after England beat India at Edgbaston (Photo by Gareth Copley-IDI/IDI via Getty Images)

Under pressure from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh heading into their clash with India, the England players had a team meeting to prepare them for Sunday’s match at Edgbaston.

Their win put Sri Lanka’s realistic challenge to bed, though, before Bangladesh’s hopes were ended by defeat to India on Tuesday.

And Morgan revealed the crisis meeting helped revitalise England - which showed as their barnstorming first innings all-but knocked India out of contention.

"The majority of the guys spoke in the meeting,” Morgan added. “I thought it was extremely productive.

“The guys came out of it feeling energised, motivated and eager to take on India.

"We haven't needed to do that too often. It has happened a couple of times before, but not under the pressure of a World Cup.

"We have things in place, basic principles of our game and some team values for situations like the one we find ourselves in right now. We've probably never needed them as much as we did previous to the Birmingham game.”

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