Shocked Morgan touts 'bad batting' as reason behind 157 run rout against Lanka

England cricketer Eoin Morgan has urged the national team to up their game after they suffered a humiliating 157-run defeat against Sri Lanka in their ODI clash at The Oval in the country and said that his side's batting was as bad as they could bat.

Morgan, who is filling in as captain of the team because skipper Alastair Cook is out of action due to a groin strain, said that it was one of the worst performances that he has been part of.

According to The Guardian, the left-handed batsman said that the wicket had been a bit tacky but they should have been good enough to cope, adding that it was the sort of pitch that the England squad would like to play sides like Sri Lanka on, but said that they have been outplayed.

Morgan said that they bowled quite well at Sri Lanka and although they lacked a few wickets, they still contained the other team to four or four and a half an over, which was great effort, and they were happy with the score they got.

However, Morgan said that the England team lacked partnerships through the whole innings and never seemed to get going, adding that the batting line up just struggled.

Sri Lanka's medium paceman Nuwan Kulasekara took three wickets in an opening spell to collapse England's top order and at one point he took three for one run simply by bowling a good line and length.

Meanwhile Kulasekara's teammate Sachithra Senanayake bagged a career-best of four wickets for 13 runs.