Mumbai, India - West Indies batsman Runako Morton spoke with the media shortly after his top score of 90 not out in the sensational West Indies 10 run victory over world champions Australia at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in the second Group A game in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Morton came into the final eleven after Shivnarine Chanderpaul suffered food poisoning which caused severe dehydration. Chanderpaul was not considered for the final eleven but Morton batted brilliantly alongside captain Brian Lara to dig the Windies out of trouble after the first four wickets fell for 63.
Following are some excerpts from Morton’s media interview.
On his innings:
My last performance against Australia [in the DLF Cup in Malaysia where he established a record for the most balls faced without scoring] is something that I want to forget and I really wanted to go out there and get some runs on the board and put the team in a good position for the bowlers to work with.
On the partnership with Brian Lara:
It was a pleasure batting with the skipper. You can’t ask for better when you are batting with the best batsman in the world.
On how the Windies are feeling after felling the mighty Australia:
We are looking forward to win this tournament again as we are the defending champions and what a way to start.
On how the team is working towards the World Cup in 2007:
All of us are looking forward to playing the World Cup in our country and by the start we have had today hopefully we will move from strength to strength and go on and win this tournament and go into the World Cup on a high.
On how he is working to establish himself in the Windies squad:
Once you could establish yourself both at the Test level and One Day level and contribute in a positive way to the team anyone would feel good about that.
On how the coaching staff has assisted in his development:
The coaching staff has never given up hope in us, they are always working hard and everything takes time to develop into something good so hopefully today is our stepping stone for us and the coaching staff as well.
