England's chase 'absolutely remarkable' - Morgan

Eoin Morgan said he had "never seen anything like it" as England thrashed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the second ODI at Edgbaston.

Morgan, England's captain, hailed an "absolutely remarkable" unbroken opening stand of 256 - a record for any wicket for England in ODI cricket - as Alex Hales and Jason Roy both recorded unbeaten centuries and career-best ODI scores. It is the highest total overhauled by a 10-wicket margin by any side in the history of ODI cricket.

"That chase was absolutely remarkable," Morgan said. "I've never experienced anything like it. We were so in control without being reckless. The two boys were outstanding. They were very imposing and they played brilliant, very entertaining cricket."

But both Roy and Morgan also praised England's bowlers for a much-improved performance that kept Sri Lanka to a total that could have been as much as 100 under par on an excellent batting surface.

"I said after Trent Bridge that we were way-off with the ball," Morgan said. "Here, I didn't think we did anything exceptional, but we did the basics well. It didn't swing or nip off the seam and there are always huge challenges in one-day cricket when that doesn't happen.

"But we starved them of runs. We banged out a length and we used our bouncers well. We built pressure that way which resulted in us taking wickets. It was brilliant.

"It was a lesson for us last year when we played against Australia. They are a really good at doing that and we picked up that we needed to be better at it."

Roy, who celebrated his first international century in England, agreed. "The bowlers kept Sri Lanka to a total where we didn't feel under a huge amount of pressure going out there," he said. "So a huge amount of credit must go to them."

The victory not only gave England a 1-0 lead in the series, but an unassailable 13-3 lead in the Super Series. It left Morgan reflecting on England's fortune in escaping with a tie from the first ODI in which they played "poorly" in his words.

"I emphasised after that game that it was our get out of jail free card," Morgan said. "We played very poorly as a team, but a few individuals performed exceptionally well and did enough that we went unscathed. A six off the last ball doesn't happen very often."

Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka captain, admitted it was a "disappointing performance" from his side's batsmen but suggested they must "forget about it as quickly as possible" with another ODI looming on Sunday.

"Simply we didn't get enough runs on the board for our bowlers to get them out," Mathews said. "It was a belter of a wicket. 256 was below par; 300 is a must on that wicket. It played brilliantly. It was a little bit slow in the first half but it got better and better so we fell short by 50 or 60 runs.

"We have to try to flush it out of the system and forget about this game as quickly as possible because we've got only one day to come back and play pretty well.

"Our batsmen are in good nick and unfortunately they get 20s and 30s and getting run out is absolutely not on. And it is unfortunate that it has been happening the last two games and hopefully we can run well in the next three games and not give run outs to the opposition."

He was also full of praise for the England batsmen. "They are explosive openers and if you give them a chance then that's what they can do; they can destroy any attack and unfortunately we didn't have the penetration today. Jason and Alex batted brilliantly to get them home."