Australia v England: Catch controversy cannot mask England's batting woes

England's Jason Roy is judged to not have caught a ball that would have Australia's Glenn Maxwell out during their Twenty/20 cricket match in Hobart. (Tracey Nearmy/AAP Image via AP)

Maxwell’s superb 103 not out saw the hosts to a second straight win in the Trans-Tasman T20 series, having thrashed New Zealand in Sydney, but it might easily have been a very different story.

Having already been dropped by Alex Hales on 40 he chipped the ball to long-off on 59, where Jason Roy stooped to claim a low catch. Standing umpire Gerard Abood offered a ‘soft signal’ of out but sent it for review and was overturned by colleague Chris Brown, despite typically inconclusive replays and the precarious position of the match.

Morgan felt that was the wrong call but shied away from a hard luck story, admitting there was no easy way to avert such controversies.

“Jason said it was out. I trust the player’s call, I agreed with the on-field umpire at the time, but I can understand how it got overturned,” he said.

“Sometimes you don’t get those decisions going your way. There were two dropped catches, officially. My opinion doesn’t really matter but we always know TV makes it look worse than it is.”

Asked if he would support a review of umpiring protocols for similar incidents, Morgan demurred. “I would say yes but I don’t know how, I don’t have an answer,” he said. “If there’s no right answer to something then you can’t correct it. I’m all for reviewing catches.

“If the umpire is 60 metres away and can’t see he needs to go upstairs but there’s no solution to it yet. Until somebody comes up with one I’m not sure.”

England's Dawid Malan misses delivery from of Australia during their Twenty20 cricket match in Hobart. (Tracey Nearmy/AAP Image via AP)

Maxwell countered: “When it doesn’t go completely cleanly into your hands and it’s more of a fingers catch you always have that little bit of doubt and you’re almost trying to convince yourself that it’s out.”

Morgan did not allow the issue to shunt his side’s dreadful batting collapse too far into the shade, making it clear a total of 155-9 was unacceptable.

Dawid Malan’s stylish 50 had steered the side to a sturdy halfway score of 96-3 before Australia’s bowlers took full control.

England bowler David Willey removed David Warner, Chris Lynn and Travis Head cheaply to make a game of it but the hosts held on for a five-wicket success.

“The batting stands out like a sore thumb,” added Morgan.

“It was a really bad day for us. We were looking at 170-180 plus but we were 25 short of par.”