Kashif Ali reflected on his side’s victory over Northants Steelbacks, as the batter blitzed a career-best T20 score of 88 from just 46-balls to lead his side to a six-wicket win.
Coming to the crease with his side in trouble at 3-2, Kashif took the attack to the Steelbacks, as he and Gareth Roderick launched a stunning counter-attack.
The pair added 127 for the third-wicket, with Kashif’s innings including seven-fours and four-sixes, before he was caught in the deep 12 runs short of a remarkable hundred.
Kashif, was delighted with the result and said his partner, Roderick, played a crucial role in their successful chase.
“We needed that win, especially coming back from the last game. We really needed it.
“Looking at the first innings, there was a bit in for the bowler, so I thought, I’m not going to take a step back. I’ll just take a step forward and try and attack, make them do something different and I think it helped me.
“Gareth Roderick did a brilliant job as well, staying calm. Rodders took up responsibility of just rotating and letting me play a bit aggressive and it helped.”
With 154 runs in seven-innings leading into Sunday’s pivotal fixture, Ali had made plenty of starts along the way, but only kicking on to make one-fifty in the away win over Nottinghamshire Outlaws.
After speaking this week to batting consultant, Kadeer Ali, the decision to back his natural game paid dividends on Sunday as he carved the ball to all-parts of the ground, maintaining a strike-rate of almost 200 throughout his innings.
“Whatever bowler was going to bowl, I was going to try and watch the ball and play, back my instinct.“I was speaking to Kadeer Ali in the morning, he said, just back your instinct, don’t think about anything.
“The chat in the middle was, whoever’s going to go, one of us is going to just try and rotate while we can.
Chasing down 153 with relative ease was largely thanks to the substantial third-wicket partnership – however, the efforts of the Rapids seam bowlers at the start of the match, helped reduce the Steelbacks to 53-5 in the ninth over, a position from which the hosts were unable to recover to post an above par score.
Tom Taylor shone with 2-22, bowling his four-overs straight through at the start of the match, while Adam Finch and overseas-star Ben Dwarshuis continued to impress.
Kashif, credited Taylor and his fellow bowlers for keeping the team in the match, and more significantly, the tournament.
“I think we bowled really, really well up top. There was a bit in the wicket as well, but we stuck to our plans, which was really good to see. We went for a few at the end, but it’s T20 cricket and that can happen.
“Tom Taylor has been amazing with the new ball for us. Every time he’s had a new ball in his hand, he’s shown some real skills. And like today, he’s done a job for the team.
“I mean, we’ve got to believe, right? And we’ve just got to go with the mentality that we’re going to win and go in with the positive and winning mentality.”
