Yorkshire captain Alex Lees praises 'game-changer' Adil Rashid

Denzil Pinto 07:07 21/03/2015
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  • Great effort: Adil Rashid (c) picked up four wickets with his leg spin.

    Stand-in Yorkshire captain Alex Lees had nothing but praise for Adil Rashid, saying he can be a “game changer” after his four-wicket haul in the Emirates Airline T20.

    Speaking at Dubai’s Sevens Stadium, Lees, said: “When you get a leg-spinner like Rashid, he can be a game changer. He has been awesome for us today and yesterday in our warm-up game and he did the job for us.

    He added: “We wanted to put on a good show and we did that. Now we want to obviously carry that form into the one-day cricket competition when the new season starts.

    “I think our score in the final was the difference to be honest. We got some good runs on the board and it was a good all-round performance, especially Rashid who put on a magnificent performance.”

    Rashid, who claimed two wickets in the first semi-final against Lancashire, insists there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

    “I still feel there’s a long way to go,” said the 27-year-old. “It’s a good day to have but we still have a lot of work to do for the new season. Obviously winning this title will be a big boost to the players and we want to focus hard on making it a successful season.”

    Speaking of the final, he said: “It’s nice to get some wickets and that too in a competitive match. I spun the ball very well and in this kind of competition you have to bowl in different areas and mix it up. That caused the Sussex players problems.”

    Sussex’s wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Brown was disappointed by the loss, but feels the tournament had plenty of positives. The 23-year-old said: “We committed really well. We got a good win against the MCC but it was a bit disappointing to lose the final. But every player got a lot of match practice and got back into competition mode.”

    He added: “Having trained indoors in England the change to outdoors can be can be tricky. That’s why tournaments like these are great because we can play outside. It’s a great help for us ahead of the new season.”

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