London, September 05: England captain Andrew Strauss saw young leg-spinning all-rounder Adil Rashid’s performance as the silver lining in their narrow loss to Australia in the first One Day International of the seven-match series.
Rashid bowled a tidy spell to return with figures of none for 37 in 10 overs, then smashed 31 off 23 balls to bring England close to victory.
“I thought Adil Rashid was excellent, the way he bowled and the way he batted at the end. He mixed it up well and all the Australian batsmen found him hard to get away. There were some nice wristy flicks with the bat as well and he’s definitely one for the future for us,” said Strauss.
“We have always known Adil is a very talented individual both with the ball and the bat.
“Just recently for Yorkshire he has been putting in more consistent performances and he is starting to realise that talent.
“Today, in a big game for him, I thought the way he bowled was exceptional. Someone like Michael Clarke, who is a very good player of spin, struggled against him for a while.
“He has the capabilities to be a genuine all-rounder which is exciting. This is the start of his career.
“Luke Wright has just got back in the side. I like the talent on offer,” Strauss added.
Clarke was equally impressed with Rashid and admitted to being slightly surprised not to have faced him more during the tour.
“He bowled really well. I thought he might have played a part in the Test series,” said the Australian captain.
“He is a wonderful player with plenty of talent and he has got a bright future. I couldn’t seem to hit him for any runs tonight.”
Strauss rued the lack of proper pacing in England’s chase, and said that one of the top-order batsmen had to take responsibility in a chase.
“We didn’t chase it as well as we should have. We weren’t quite good enough but it’s a seven-match series and we’ll look to come back strongly at Lord’s in the second match on Sunday,” said Strauss.
“When you are chasing 260 you need one of your batters to go on and make a big score. None of our batters were able to do that. There were plenty of contributions but no-one made a sizeable enough one to tilt the game in our favour.
“If you want to win consistently one of your top four or five needs to get hundreds more often than not. We had a very gettable target but we needed one batsman to go on and get a big score. Nobody got a fifty so you’re always struggling in those circumstances. That is an area we are looking to address. we weren’t able to do it today. Hopefully we will be able to put that right on Sunday.”
—–Agencies