England v Ireland: Eoin Morgan praises Adil Rashid for overcoming 'tough' winter - BBC Sport
Eoin Morgan says Adil Rashid has learned from a "tough" winter after his 5-27 helps England beat Ireland by seven wickets.
Last updated on .From the section Cricket

Adil Rashid showed he has learned from a "tough" winter by taking 5-27 to help England beat Ireland by seven wickets in Bristol, said captain Eoin Morgan.

Leg-spinner Rashid, 29, struggled for consistency as England lost a Test series in India 4-0 late last year.

He was dropped after the first one-dayer against India but performed well in the West Indies series in March.

"He's a huge asset for us and hopefully he gets it right in the middle of the summer," said Morgan.

Rashid's figures on Friday were the second best by an English spinner in one-day internationals, behind the 5-20 taken by Vic Marks against New Zealand in Wellington in 1984.

"It was a tough time in the winter and he's clearly learned from it," Morgan told BBC Test Match Special. "He's slowly building back enough confidence.

"Coming out with his career-best performance after having a very tough winter in India and starting to put something together in the West Indies - it shows the threat leg-spin has."

England play the second and final one-dayer against Ireland at Lord's on Sunday (11:00 BST).

'You have good days and bad days'

Ireland were 81-2 but lost eight wickets for 45 runs as they collapsed to 126 all out in 33 overs. Seven of those wickets fell to Rashid and part-time off-spinner Joe Root, who took 2-9.

Rashid finished with his first five-wicket haul in ODIs, with the Ireland batsmen struggling to read his variations.

Asked how he rated the performance, Rashid said: "It's probably up there.

"It's a great feeling getting a five-for in any conditions. I feel as though I am improving and hopefully I can carry it on.

"You have good days, you have bad days. It's how you deal with it. Sometimes you don't feel great but you have to find a Plan B, Plan C."

Adil Rashid did the job any captain wants when you open the door into a side. Your leg-spinner comes on and kicks it wide open and that's exactly what he did.

I think he's a very good one-day bowler with the white ball. He knows he can do it and he's confident.

With the red ball, I don't think he's got the confidence - he doesn't believe he's a Test match bowler. As a result, he bowls a lot more bad balls with the red ball."

England have won six of the seven completed one-day matches against Ireland, and eight of their past nine at home.

Morgan's side are scheduled to play 21 matches across all formats by 29 September, plus up to five matches in the Champions Trophy 50-over competition, which begins on 1 June.

"Putting in a clinical performance is as good as we can ask for as a side. It is how ruthless we need to be going forward," Morgan said.

Having almost qualified from their group at the 2015 World Cup, Ireland have struggled recently and are 12th in the one-day rankings, seven places behind England.

They suffered heavy ODI defeats against Pakistan last August, and to South Africa and Australia in September. In March, they lost T20 and ODI series against Afghanistan.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, Swann said Ireland "fell to pieces" as they lost a succession of wickets to "abysmal shots".

Ireland captain William Porterfield said: "I think we started off pretty positively and wouldn't necessarily have envisaged that spin would do the damage.

"Not taking anything away from Rashid, we should have played it a lot better. That's something we need to mentally put right for Sunday."