London, July 13 (IANS) England’s Adil Rashid might not have had the best of games in the group stages, but the legspinner made it count on the big stage as he picked up three wickets in the semifinal against Australia as the hosts decimated their arch-rivals by eight wickets to set up a date with New Zealand in the final at Lord’s on Sunday.
And the spinner believes skipper Eoin Morgan deserves credit.
“He always has the faith in me from day one till now. There are going to be games where you don’t go well, that’s part and parcel of cricket, but he always has the confidence that I can do a job. He’s 100 per cent the best captain I’ve ever played under. He knows my game inside out now.
“I’ve been with him for four years, through good times and not so good times. He knows my strengths and what I’m capable of. We have that trust as well. If he senses something, we’ll go by it. We’re easy-going like that and I 100 per cent trust him in all the decisions he makes,” Rashid said with a smile.
Rashid didn’t bowl too many googlies till the semifinal and the moment he did that, the Australian batsmen found it difficult to read him. Rashid returned figures of 3/54 from his 10 overs to help England restrict Australia to 223.
“I’ve had a bit of a shoulder problem, so I’ve not bowled the googlies as much. I know that it’s a big weapon for me. My shoulder has that little bit of problem but I knew I still had to bowl it, even if there was a bit of pain.
“Before the shoulder problem, I was confident bowling everything. Once you have a niggle, it becomes a bit harder with the rotation — the arm gets a bit lower and you don’t find that snap,” he explained.
Commenting on the clinical show in the semifinal, Rashid said: “We were enjoying the moment. It was nice to contribute and get a few wickets, I reckon there’s been a few times I’ve bowled better but not got the rewards. That happens in cricket, sometimes you bowl well and don’t get wickets.
“I want to keep striving, keep looking to work hard and keeping looking to deliver my skills and be confident in that.”
-IANS
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