by Adam Dosunmu Slater
Tabraiz Shamsi hailed his Trent Rockets team-mates as the "best I have worked with", thanking them for their support following the hospitalisation of his two-year-old son.
Shamsi dedicated his two-wicket performance to his son, wife and teammates as the Rockets defeated the Oval Invincibles by 25 runs at Trent Bridge.
Afterwards, the 32-year-old revealed he had spent the past week with his wife, Khadija Shariff, at his son’s bedside, and praised the support he had received from his club mates.
“This performance, I'd like to dedicate to them as well as my wife who's at home with my little man who's not doing too well,” the South African said.
“Big credit to my team behind the scenes. It's been a rough, rough week so I've been quite mellow the past couple of games and they haven't gone as well for me.
“That’s why I would like to give a lot of credit to the coach, the team management and my team-mates.
“They've never once let me feel any negativity, and they've been there for me, you know? I've never felt that in any other team so far in my career.”
Shamsi’s wicket of Roy brought about a 30-yard sprint and his trademark 'phone dial' with his shoe, as the spinner pointed directly at the dressing room.
On his celebration, he said it was all down to the team behind the scenes and their encouragement.
“They just told me, ‘look, if you take wickets today, we want to see you celebrating, and we are right behind you’.
“So my celebrations are for them.”
On his performance, he added: “When you play for any team you want to contribute. My job is to take wickets, so it was nice, especially in my first home game.”
Victory put the Rockets in a good position to qualify for the knockout stages, with four teams needing to be whittled down to three.
For the Invincibles’ Jordan Cox, who scored 61 from 33 balls, Shamsi was the difference-maker.
For Shamsi to bowl like he did and to get two wickets was a killer really,” he said.
“He's a world-class bowler and, unfortunately, he got the better of us today.”