Eoin Morgan was delighted to see his batting line-up play aggressively against India's spinners as England kept their Cricket World Cup semi-final hopes in their own hands with a 31-run win at Edgbaston.
Jonny Bairstow responded to a difficult week that saw him come in for criticism from former England captain Michael Vaughan with a brilliant century and a 160-run opening stand with the fit-again Jason Roy.
Yuzvendra Chahal (0-88) and Kuldeep Yadav (1-72) particularly toiled on a batsman-friendly pitch in Birmingham and captain Morgan praised his side for playing an attacking brand of cricket.
"Jason Roy coming back in, him and Jonny Bairstow up the top, Jonny going and getting a hundred - that was magnificent to watch," he said at the post-match presentation.
"I think probably the continuation of partnerships right throughout took us to a quite formidable total.
"I think that [taking on the spinners] was probably the winning and losing of the game, from 10 to 20 overs we got 90-95 runs, which is quite substantial early.
"It lays a huge platform for the way we want to play. The two main spinners for India being taken on is great to see. That's the way we want to play our cricket."
England will be sure of a semi-final place by beating New Zealand in their final group game, but Morgan warned his team to avoid a complacent attitude.
"There's absolutely no easy game in this tournament. [The] game between Pakistan and Afghanistan proved that," he said.
"Every game in this World Cup has been extremely tough for everybody and I think it'll continue to be."
For his century at the top of the order that set the tone for England, Jonny Bairstow was named Player of the Match! #CWC19 | #ENGvIND | #WeAreEngland pic.twitter.com/i6H8groCQ3
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 30, 2019
Man of the match Bairstow was left to reflect on a week in which he suggested people were waiting for England to fail, leading Vaughan to question his mentality.
"I think it's been frustrating a little bit for the guys. We know how well we can play," he said.
"We were pretty good bat, ball and in the field and I think that there's still things we can improve on going forward to New Zealand next week."
Rohit Sharma made a century and Virat Kohli 66 in their stand of 138, but ultimately India's scoring was too slow to chase down a target of 338.
Captain Kohli disputed that England's score was only just above par and felt India did well to reel in their opponents, with Mohammed Shami claiming a five-for.
"I thought they were going to get 360 at one stage. I think we did well to pull them back," he said.
"In the end 10 to 15 [fewer runs] would have been better because we had them under pressure at the 40-over mark, but Ben [Stokes] played a very good innings as well.
"You have to accept it, take it in your stride and accept the opposition played better than you on the day and they were just more clinical in terms of their execution with their plan."