Captain Morgan hails five-wicket Rashid

Eoin Morgan congratulated Adil Rashid on bouncing back from his “tough winter” after the leg-spinner’s maiden fivewicket haul set England on the fast track to victory over Ireland.

Rashid’s 5-27 helped to hustle the tourists out for just 126 in 33 overs, in their first game in England, and then opener Alex Hales (55) and Joe Root (49no) were the driving forces to complete the chase in just 20 more for the loss of three wickets and end the mismatch without the need even for a lunch break between innings.

Rashid paid a heavy cost for his 23 wickets in England’s Test series defeat before Christmas against India, whose batsmen are so formidable in home conditions.

But he was back to his best with the white ball as Morgan’s men opened their high-profile summer by charging to an early victory to go 1-0 up with one more match to play in the Royal London Series, at Lord’s tomorrow.

Morgan said: “It was Adil’s day – he put in a magnificent effort with the ball.

“He had a tough winter and has learned a huge amount to come back with confidence to bowl his variations and show how threatening he can be.”

Rashid’s ODI career-best has been bettered only once by any England spinner.

Asked how highly he rated his spell himself, the Yorkshireman said: “It was probably up there – I’ve had a couple of other performances as well. I hope I can now carry it on into the summer.”

Profiting mainly with his very effective and hard-topick googly, Rashid had three lbw victims and also cleanbowled left-hander Stuart Thompson.

“You have good days and bad days – it’s how you deal with it,” Rashid added.

“Sometimes you don’t feel great, and you’ve got to find a Plan B or even C ... it’s a learning curve.”