Azeem Rafiq is delighted to have finished as Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker in both the Twenty20 Blast and the 50-over One Day Cup – as well as the best in the country for the two tournaments combined – but is devastated not to be going to next week's finals day.
The 26-year-old spinner from Gawber – who had been training with the England senior team before their first Test match against the West Indies – recorded career-best figures of five for 19 off his four overs as Yorkshire bowled Northamptonshire out for 136. Rafiq said: "I feel I have bowled quite well all the way through the competition, in some of the toughest overs, so to get those figures in what turned out to be our last match was a nice reward. It's the best I've bowled and it's given me a lot of confidence."
Yorkshire were defending an English record 260 in which Adam Lyth crunched a superb 161 which was the best ever domestic individual score. Azeem admits his bowling efforts will be overshadowed by Lyth's innings, but feels that is fair.
He said: "Jason Gillespie (ex-Yorkshire coach) texted me and said that Arthur Morris, the former Australian opener, was always asked if he played in Donald Bradman's last Test when he was out for a duck going for his 100th career 100. Morris would say: 'Yes. I made 196.'
"In the future I will probably be asked if I played in the game when Adam Lyth hit 161 off 70 balls and no one will remember that I got five wickets. But I don't mind, it was an incredibly, incredibly special moment for Lythy and we all just want to thank him for giving us the opportunity to witness it."
Yorkshire moved up to second with that result in their final Blast game but Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Birmingham all won the following night so the Vikings fell down to fifth and did not qualify for the quarter-finals which were played this week. Rafiq said: "Most of the matches we lost came down to the last over or ball.
"Halfway through the Friday games it looked like we would go through but we just missed out. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We weren't consistent enough."
Rafiq has 17 wickets in the Blast which is the joint most in the Yorkshire team with former England bowler Tim Bresnan and also fourth in the list for all counties for the group stage. He also took the most Yorkshire wickets in the 50-over One Day Cup earlier this year with 18 while only Sam Curran of beaten finalists Surrey claimed more.
He has the most wickets, with 35, in the country for the Twenty20 and 50-over competition combined. He also has five wickets in the County Championship – in which he is not first choice like in the limited over matches – so his tally for all competitions is 40 which is his most prolific season since claiming 49 in 2012.
After that he suffered a dramatic loss in form and was released by Yorkshire in 2014 before rediscovering his form in club cricket and rejoining the Headingley club last year.Rafiq – who is six away from 100 Twenty20 wickets in his career – said: "I put a lot of emphasis on getting more wickets this season and to finish so high up the lists in the Twenty20 and One Day Cup is really pleasing."
Rafiq, the former captain of the England under 19s, was invited to train with the senior England squad ahead of last week's Test by Paul Farbrace, the assistant coach of the national team who worked with him at Headingley.
Azeem, who is close friends with England captain Joe Root, said: "It was a great experience and it's a really good group to be part of. I worked a lot with Saqlain Mushtaq (England's spin bowling coach) and he made a big impact on my bowling. I am already feeling the benefit of that. I would love to play for England in the future, that has always been my dream since I was a kid.
"The spinners they have in the team in all formats at the moment are doing really well so I don't know how realistic my chances are. But I will just keep working on my game and enjoying my cricket and never give up on the dream of representing my country."
Yorkshire do not play again until next month when they finish off their County Championship season with four four-day matches. They are currently fifth out of eight with only three wins from their ten games this season, 55 points behind runaway leaders Essex and 26 clear of the relegation zone.
Azeem said: "They are four big games. We need to make sure that we don't get involved in the battle at the bottom of the table."
