Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo
SIKANDAR Raza made history in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after a brilliant all-round display saw him help his team, Punjab Kings to victory by two wickets over Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday.
Raza, named Player of the Match, became the first Zimbabwean to pick up the accolade in the IPL. His 57 runs off 42 deliveries was also the first half century by a Zimbabwean batsman in the world’s most lucrative T20 league.
Tatenda Taibu and Raymond Price, the only other Zimbabweans to play in the IPL never scored half centuries to win the Player of the Match award. Taibu’s highest score in three IPL matches for the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008 was 15 runs while Prince never batted in the only match he played for the Mumbai Indians in the 2011 season.
Coming back to the playing 11 after being a substitute in their previous match, Raza took one wicket in two overs for 19 runs as they restricted Super Giants to 158/8 in 20 overs and went on to top score with 57 runs to help his team finish on 161/8 to win it with three balls remaining in the match.
Sam Curran, son of the late former Zimbabwe captain and coach Kevin Curran starred with the ball for the Kings, picking up three wickets for 31 runs in his four over spell while South African Kagiso Rabada, returning to the team took two scalps for 34 runs in four overs as well. Arshdeep Singh, and Harpreet Brar had one wicket each. Super Giants captain Lokesh Rahul top scored with 74 runs off 56 balls.
Coming in to bat at number five, Raza had a lot on his hands as the Kings were struggling on 45/3, missing the services of their in-form captain Shikhar Dhawan and the Zimbabwean managed to deliver a knock for the history books. His innings consisted of four fours and three sixes before he was caught with his team needing 21 runs to win from 13 balls with the game looking poised for a late twist.
It was Shahrukh Khan saw the team through with an unbeaten 23 runs off 10 balls. Matthew Short was the second leading run getter for the Kings with 34 runs from 22 deliveries.
Apart from being named Player of the Match, Raza was also named Commander of the Match by his team for his brilliant all-round performance. Leading cricket website ESPN CricInfo also had Raza as their Most Valuable Player for the match.
It was the third win of the season for the Kings, which saw them move to six points. Their next match is on Thursday against Royal Challengers Bangalore. — @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter