Rashid leads way again in vital win for Rockets
FROM Adelaide to Hyderabad to Nottingham, cricket fans across the world have rightly fallen in love with Rashid Khan.
In the Caribbean Premier League, he took the first-ever hat-trick.
In the Indian Premier League, he became the first-ever million-pound player.
In The Hundred, he was the first pick of the draft.
Wherever Rashid Khan has gone he has broken new ground. Significantly, the Afghanistan international has done so under pressure and complications most of us are lucky enough to not even fully understand.
On Sunday night, once again, his professionalism was a testament to the way he conducts himself both on and off the field.
With everything that is taking place in his homeland right now, Khan could be forgiven for his thoughts being anywhere other than at Trent Bridge.
In sporting terms it was a ‘mustwin’ occasion if the Rockets were to progress to the next stage but that hardly seemed an appropriate way to phrase things in this context.
Khan, of course, still found a way to stand tall and deliver for his team as the Rockets defeated Manchester Originals to put one foot in the knockout stages.
At the top of his mark he slips into that self-made pocket of inventiveness and steely-eyed determination. It enchants fans and batsmen alike.
Of course, he took a wicket with the first and third ball.
Of course, six balls into his spell and the best white-ball bowler in history had taken a wicket with half of his deliveries.
After 15 balls, Khan had figures of three for six.
At one point, he had deployed a leg slip and a slip – in The Hundred.
What is even more remarkable is that when Khan came onto bowl the Originals were 70-1 off 40 balls. He was key in the field too – taking two expertly judged catches in the deep – as the Originals lost 4-5 in only 10 balls.
Khan’s final figures were 20 balls, three wickets, 11 dots, 16 runs. He didn’t just change the game, he won it. All in about 10 minutes.
And, in a way, it didn’t seem unusual – it’s sort of just what we have come to expect when he has the ball in his hand.
Such is the talent of Khan, that no one batted an eyelid or really wrote a word on him being the tournament’s first draft pick.
When the Rockets chose him, two years ago, the cricket community nodded at their pick and just muttered: “Yeah, that makes sense”.
Cricket has become synonymous with Khan. There doesn’t seem to be a time when he isn’t appearing in another global tournament because let’s be honest, there isn’t.
In recent interviews, he revealed that in the last five years he has spent only 25 days at home. In the past three years, he has lost both his parents.
For either, he wasn’t able to go home, to grieve, to feel any sort of closure because he was playing cricket and entertaining groups of people that won’t ever understand what he is thinking, feeling, or going through right now.
That only makes performances like Sunday night – and all that he has achieved over the years – all the more remarkable.
The Originals made 135-8 before Dawid Malan anchored the reply with 52 and Samit Patel hit an unbeaten 35 from 23 balls with two sixes to help seal the Rockets’ sevenwicket win.
Meanwhile, Trent Rockets Women crashed out of The Hundred as Manchester Originals hit them with a nine-wicket thrashing, easing home with 13 balls to spare.