dyton mupawaenda
Brandon Moyo-Sports Reporter
AFTER a disappointing end to their first T20I against Sri Lanka on Sunday evening at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium (RPICS) in Colombo, Zimbabwe T20 captain Sikandar Raza is confident the team will come good in the upcoming games.
Zimbabwe lost a last ball thriller by just three wickets and will have the chance to rectify their mistakes when they face Sri Lanka in the second match today at the same venue.
The game starts at 3.30pm Zim time.
It will be a do-or-die encounter for the Chevrons who have to avoid defeat in order to keep the series alive.
Despite Sunday’s defeat, Raza continues making and breaking records after he top scored for Zimbabwe with 62 runs off 42 balls and went on to finish with impressive bowling figures of 3/13 in his four over spell.
Raza became the first ever player to score half centuries in five consecutive innings while also taking at least two wickets in those innings in the history of T20I cricket.
He has solidified his status as one of the finest ever T20I players in the world.
Speaking after their disappointing defeat on Sunday, Raza said he believes his team has what it takes to change their fortunes around going forward. He believes the opportunity to play against experienced campaigners such as Angelo Mathews is good for the players in the Chevrons set up.
“I am really proud of the boys, the courage they showed, the way we fielded and the way they bowled. At the end of the day, you have some of their two most experienced cricketers (Mathews and Dasun Shanaka) and some of our youngsters came against them.
“But the good things is, that is the beauty of cricket and that is the beauty of Zimbabwe that e play against these big nations because this experience for Blessing (Muzarabani), for (Richard) Ngarava, for Luke (Jongwe) and for myself, playing against Angelo (Mathews) and some of the senior guys; it will go a long way, it will help us in development of our own game as a country.
“When we come in these situations in future these boys will be able to hold themselves on and Inshallah, we will win more games than lose,” said Raza.
He also tipped the bowlers, who in the past couple of games failed to kill off games, to deliver as he is confident they have what it takes to win matches.
“Cricket is your gut feeling and as a leader you have to listen to (gut) and everybody, like I said the day before yesterday that all of us are leaders with the ball. When we get the ball in hand, we trust ourselves, the whole team trusts the guy who’s got the ball in hand and today (Sun-day) it’s no different, even when we conceded 37 odd runs in the last three overs, we know these boys will come right, I know they will, Inshallah, come right,” he said.
Online Reporter