Adil Rashid likened England team-mate Rehan Ahmed to a “younger brother” and is relieved the teenager would probably not have to endure the pitfalls he did in his early years.
England selected both frontline leg-spinners in their T20 series opener against the West Indies in Barbados and were vindicated as the pair shared five of the home side’s six wickets to fall.
Rashid, who made his 100th T20 international appearance in England’s four-wicket defeat at the Kensington Oval, thinks he relies more on flight and variations, while reckoning Ahmed bowls quicker.
But Rashid, 35, does view Ahmed as his protege and the duo might end up dovetailing in England’s T20 World Cup defence next year in the Caribbean and United States if they continue to impress in tandem.
“That’s way down the line,” Rashid said. “There’s a lot of cricket yet to be played. Myself and Rehan are going to keep coming out, try to do the best we can and leave the rest to the selectors.
“But I definitely look at him as a younger brother. He’s 19. He’s got his own journey. We’re completely different bowlers. He’s got the tricks. He’s got the ability and he’s got the confidence.
“We’re always talking; just keeping it simple, enjoying it and let nature take its course. The more he plays and the more experience he gets, things will get better for him.”
Rashid marked his landmark appearance on Tuesday by becoming the first England male bowler to take 100 wickets in the format although it was not always such smooth sailing in his career.
He first earned England recognition in 2009 but leg-spin was still a distrusted art at the time and after a couple of innocuous displays, he was thrown on the scrapheap for half-a-dozen years.
It was only through careful nurturing during Eoin Morgan’s transformative captaincy of England’s white-ball sides from 2015 onwards that Rashid got back in – and he has hardly looked back.
Rashid is pleased that Ahmed, who bounced back from conceding 19 in his first over to record figures of three for 39 against the Windies, should not have to suffer a similar fate.
“As time’s gone on, it’s definitely got a lot better in that sense and people understanding more about leg-spin which is a great thing,” the double World Cup winner said.
“It’s completely different from 2009, times have moved on. You always learn as time goes on, you always develop and with Rehan now, with what he’s doing, hopefully he can develop as he is.”
England falling behind in the five-match series continues a disappointing sequence of white-ball results after their shock group-stage exit at the World Cup and an ODI series loss to the Windies.
They have precious little time to digest their latest setback as the series resumes on Thursday in Grenada, where Reece Topley could play his first match since a broken finger ended his World Cup early.
England’s bowlers leaked 14 sixes to the Windies’ battery of big-hitters, but Rashid insisted conviction remained high within the group despite limited success of late.
“You can’t always win World Cups. You can’t win series every time,” Rashid said. “Obviously we’d love to do that but it’s part and parcel of sport.
“It’s not just in cricket, in football you see the best in the world – one minute they win a World Cup, the next minute, they lose. That’s just natural and part of life.
“We’re still confident and have got belief in ourselves, we’ve still got a really aggressive team. All we’ve got to do is go out there and just really have that self-belief in ourselves.”
As for whether he took any satisfaction from his achievements, Rashid added: “It’s always nice to get a milestone like that for myself but it would have been better if I’d got the milestone and we’d won.”
Babar's captain's innings leads Pakistan to victory as series drawn with New Zealand
Babar Azam top scored as he led his Pakistan team to a nine-run victory over New Zealand in Lahore that saw the five-game T20I series end in a draw.
Babar hit 69 runs off 44 balls before being bowled by Ben Sears, smashing six fours and two sixes to take his team to 123/3 at the time of his dismissal.
Fakhar Zaman (43 from 33) and Usman Khan (31 off 24) also chipped in with important innings as Pakistan ended on 178/5.
With a target of 179 to secure a 3-1 series victory, New Zealand's run chase faltered almost immediately as opener Tom Blundell was removed within the first over with his team having managed just five runs on the board.
Blundell's fellow opener Tim Seifert steadied the ship with a vital 52-run innings off 33 deliveries before being bowled by Usama Mir, but Shaheen Shah Afridi led the way for Pakistan, finishing with figures of 4-30 to stem the New Zealand run chase
Josh Clarkson's 38 off 26 set up a nervy conclusion, but Pakistan held on to avoid defeat in the T20 series as the teams share the spoils at two wins apiece after the first game was abandoned.
IPL: Fraser-McGurk leads the way as Capitals hold off Mumbai
Delhi Capitals withstood Mumbai Indian’s late surge and held on for a 10-run victory at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Jake Fraser-McGurk top-scored with 84 – hitting 50 off just 15 balls – while Tristan Stubbs (48) and Shai Hope (41) also chipped in with important contributions as the Capitals set a target of 258.
Mukesh Kumar (3/59) and Rasikh Salam (3/34) did their best to halt Mumbai’s revival, but they turned up the pressure to require 25 runs from the final over.
However, despite Luke Wood and Piyush Chawla’s best efforts, Delhi held out for a second successive win.
Data debrief
Wood almost made amends after conceding 68 runs during the opening innings – the joint-most in the IPL this season, matching Reece Topley’s tally against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Tilak Varma led Mumbai’s attempted revival with 63 for his sixth half-century in the IPL, though they have all come in defeats
Chase outdone by opposite number Paudel as West Indies A suffer four-wicket loss to Nepal
West Indies A’s tour of Nepal got off to an unfortunate start, after they suffered a four-wicket loss to their host in a high scoring opening fixture of their five-match Twenty20 series at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, on Saturday.
Set a formidable 204 by West Indies A, Nepal’s thrilling victory, which was set up by a captain’s knock from Rohit Paudel, etched their names in the history books, as they successfully got to their target at 206-6 with two balls to spare.
Paudel smashed a 54-ball 112, including 10 fours and two sixes to see his team to a 1-0 lead in the series, which West Indies Head coach Darren Sammy said offers his team a chance to define roles and personnel more clearly for their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad.
However, the Caribbean side’s all-round effort was found wanting, as only captain Roston Chase (74), Alick Athanaze (47) and Keacy Carty (38) offered any resistance with the bat, while only Obed McCoy (2-34) and Matthew Forde (2-49) had some semblance of success with the ball.
Scores: West Indies A 204-5 (20 overs); Nepal 206-6 (19.4 overs)
Asked to take first strike, after losing the toss, West Indies A suffered an early blow, as they lost Johnson Charles (zero) off the last ball of the opening over, with 16 runs on the board. Andre Fletcher (13) stuck two sixes off five balls, before he too departed via the run-out route, leaving West Indies A at 43-2 in the fourth over.
However, Athanaze went about business, striking three sixes and five fours in a 25-ball knock, as he put on 43 for the third wicket with Chase, prior to his demise. From there, Chase and Carty added another 60 runs in a fourth-wicket stand that defined the innings.
Carty’s 38 off 26 balls, included two fours and three sixes, while Chase, who anchored the innings with a captain’s knock, struck nine fours and two sixes in his 46-ball 74. Kadeem Alleyne, on 14, and Keemo Paul, one, were left not out.
No Nepal bowler took more than one wicket.
With runs on the board, West Indies A would have felt confident of wrapping up a win, even more so, after Forde and McCoy combined to remove openers Anil Sah (five) and Kushal Bhurtel (16) to have Nepal at 38-2 in the fifth over.
West Indies remained in the ascendancy when Fletcher and Charles combined to run out Kushal Malla (16), leaving their host on the ropes at 82-3 at the halfway mark.
However, Paudel showed class, in not only reviving his team’s innings, but pushed them all the way with some aggressive stroke play, assisted by wayward bowling from West Indies A attack at times. Dipendra Singh Airee (24) offered support to his captain in getting Nepal across the line for a famous victory.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
