England captain Eoin Morgan has insisted that his side can still qualify for the quarter-final stage of the World Cup, despite suffering their third heavy defeat of the tournament earlier this morning.
Sri Lanka cruised to a nine-wicket victory in Wellington as England dropped down to second from bottom in the Pool A standings, with one win from their opening four games.
Despite the latest setback, Morgan says that failing to progress into the latter stages is not on his mind at this stage.
"It's not even a thought at the moment," he told reporters. "We have two games to win to get us into a quarter-final."
Morgan also rued his side's bowling performance as Sri Lanka racked up the runs to claim a comfortable win.
"We were happy going into the halfway stage, absolutely," he added. "[Joe] Root had put in a great performance. Showed us class again, which is great. But when we bowl one bad ball every couple of overs or every over, you're going to be punished."
Defeat against Afghanistan or Bangladesh in their next two outings could spell the end of England's campaign.
Daniel Lewis
