Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
SIKANDAR Raza once again reaffirmed his status as Zimbabwe’s star player with a brilliant knock to power the Chevrons to victory by 31 runs over Ireland in their opening match at the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup at the at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Australia yesterday.
Raza top scored with 82 off 44 balls as Zimbabwe, who lost the toss and were sent posted 174/7 in 20 overs. The 82 runs by Raza is the highest score by a Zimbabwean batsman at the T20 World Cup, beating the previous best of 60 not out by Brendan Taylor against Australia on September 12, 2007. Taylor’s effort on that day in Cape Town handed Zimbabwe a famous five-wicket triumph over the Australians.
Some brilliant bowling from Zimbabwe, which saw Raza pick up one wicket with his off spin had Ireland restricted to 143/9 in 20 overs. Raza deseverdly walked away with the Player of the Match accolade.
Starting poorly with the bat after losing the wicket of Regis Chakabva for a duck with just the second ball of the match, the Chevrons looked to be in trouble early on before Wessly Madhevere and skipper Craig Ervine tried to steady the innings. Ervine fell for nine runs while Madhevere scored 22.
Raza set the tone from the first ball with some clean hitting as he almost ran out of batting partners after Sean Williams, Milton Shumba and Ryan Burl scored 12, 16 and one respectively. Luke Jongwe proved to be a good partner at the crease for Raza, scoring 20 runs off 10 deliveries to guide Zimbabwe to their highest ever T20 World Cup total.
The Chevrons were in trouble on 37/3 after 5. 3 overs, before Raza smashed five fours and same number of sixes to boost the team’s total.
Just like how their innings started, Zimbabwe struck with the second ball of the Irish innings, left arm pace bowler Richard Ngarava getting the wicket of Paul Stirling. Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirne fell for just three runs off the bowling of Blessing Muzarabani. The tall seamer finished with 3/23, Ngarava had figures of 2/22, the same as another pace bowler Tendai Chatara.
Despite missing out in a hat-trick, Chatara is now Zimbabwe’s leading wicket taker in the shortest format of the game with 49 wickets, one ahead of Luke Jongwe who bowled two overs without picking up any wicket.
The perfect start to the World Cup has put the Chevrons in second position. Scotland who won their opener against group favorites West Indies by 42 runs are on top of Group B.
In his post-match interview, Raza said focus has already shifted to tomorrow’s match where they will be facing the West Indies and yesterday’s victory is already in the past.
“I wouldn’t be celebrating this victory. It’s done, it’s in the past. We have a very tough game against the West Indies in 48 hours’ time and that’s what I’m looking forward to now,” said Raza.
Two groups of four teams kicked off the global showpiece and the top two teams from both groups will make it to the next round of the tournament which is the Super 12 where they will join South Africa, England, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India and Afghanistan. – Follow on Twitter @brandon_malvin
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter