England lucky to escape on level terms, admits Morgan

England skipper Eoin Morgan has admitted that his side were lucky to escape with a dramatic tie in the opening one-day international of the five-match Royal London series against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge.

Chasing a competitive target of 287, England were reeling at 82 for six before Jos Buttler and man-of-the-match Chris Woakes steadied the ship by making a solid 138-run stand for the seventh wicket.

Needing 14 off the last over with eight wickets down, England levelled the scores in the final ball of the pulsating match when tailender Liam Plunkett smacked Nuwan Pradeep over long-off for a six.

"We are very lucky to get out of this game with a tie and go to Edgbaston at 0-0 all square," Morgan was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "The general performance was poor. Bat, ball, field, was really rusty. That was as bad as we have performed with the bat over the past year."

The skipper, however, insisted that the belief in the squad was high and added that their confidence was bolstered especially after seeing tailenders' skills with the bat.

"You can always win the game from any situation and today proved that a little bit," Morgan said. "We were dead and buried a couple of times in the World T20. There is a lot of belief in the changing room, particularly with the bat.