Brett D’Oliveira praised an “outstanding” knock from Azhar Ali as Worcestershire Rapids made it two wins out of two in the Metro Bank One Day Cup with a four wicket success over Glamorgan at New Road.
Azhar struck 78 from 104 balls to ensure there were few alarms for the Rapids in chasing down a 200 target with 8.3 overs to spare.
The Pakistan star put on 100 for the second wicket with newcomer Rob Jones (37) in the decisive stand.
He had also batted impressively in making 41 from 36 balls in the victory over Durham at the Seat Unique Riverside.
D’Oliveira said: “Azhar played an outstanding knock and I haven’t got enough good words to say about him.
“He is a great human being to start with, but also a fantastic player.
“Azhar is Pakistan’s most successful number three player in Test match cricket. He has won ICC trophies and things like that, and he has got a hell of a lot of experience behind him.
“It is great he can impart that knowledge on the group and he has shown his class over the last few games.”
D’Oliveira took his wicket tally to six in two games with another three and he and fellow spinner Josh Baker again bowled well in tandem.
He said: “It is always nice when you’ve got another spinner at the other end trying to squeeze guys in the middle.
“Naturally in one-day cricket, when you get a few wickets, you can squeeze quite well from the other end if you are bowling spin.
“We are going to face some challenges ahead, that’s for sure. I think we will get onto some better wickets where players will look to target spin.
“But that might work in our favour and thankfully the last couple of games it has worked.”
Worcestershire will now take on Somerset at Taunton on Sunday having won their last four matches in all competitions.
D’Oliveira said: “We’ve played some good cricket of late and the challenge is to keep doing that and we will naturally hit some hurdles along the road
“But it is important we keep looking at the next game and don’t look too far ahead.”
