Records tumble as Chevrons make short work of Gambia

THE Chevrons smashed multiple records in their fourth match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Africa Qualifier B in Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday.

The Chevrons won the toss, elected to bat and registered a massive 290-run victory over Gambia, bowling them out for just 54 runs in 14,4 overs. The Chevrons scored a mammoth 334/4 in 20 overs, setting the highest-ever score in T20I history and surpassing Nepal’s previous record of 314 runs in 2023. Zimbabwe also holds the fourth-highest T20I score of 286/5 achieved against Seychelles on Saturday.

The team was led by captain Sikandar Raza, who made history twice. He became the first Zimbabwean to take a five-wicket haul in T20Is on Tuesday and yesterday and the first to score a century for the Chevrons in a T20I.

Raza’s unbeaten 133 off 43 balls included seven fours and a massive 15 sixes is joint fourth in the number of sixes in a T20I innings. Raza reached his century in 33 balls. This is now the joint second-fastest ton in T20I alongside Namibia’s Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton. Sahil Chauhan of Nepal holds the record of the fastest T20I century, which came off 27 balls.

Tadiwanashe Marumani scored the fastest half-century for Zimbabwe in this format, taking just 13 deliveries and falling for 62 runs off 19 balls. Brian Bennett and Clive Madande scored 50 and 53 runs respectively, with Madande remaining unbeaten at the end of the innings.

Ryan Burl was caught on 25 runs from 11 balls, while Dion Myers made 12 off five deliveries. Raza was unaware of the record he had made while batting and expressed surprise after the match.

“It’s nice, it was tough to lose out on my batting performance yesterday (Tuesday). I looked at my dismissal and said any other day it would have hit my pad and not rolled onto the stumps and when I came out today I just wanted to be positive and not allow that dismissal from the last game to bother me.

“The platform was set by openers and Dion at number three. One of the things we discussed as a team is that anyone who comes in must try and keep up with the tempo set by other batters and all I wanted to do was to match that intensity and once a few came out of the middle I just thought of one way.

“I didn’t even know where I was. But I did get a message from the coach that you guys are set and there should be a record for the team, so the team record was on my mind but I didn’t know where I was, I just wanted to keep going,” said Raza.

Richard Ngarava and Brandon Mavuta led from the front with the ball. Mavuta finished with figures of 3/10 in four overs while Ngarava took 3/13 in four overs and Wessly Madhevere took two scalps.

Andre Jarju top-scored for Gambia with an unbeaten 12. He was the only one to reach double figures, with the Chevrons conceding 14 extras.

Gambia captain, Ismaila Tamba, said there were lessons learnt from the defeat.

“It was a learning process for us. It is really a pleasure playing with a team like Zimbabwe. They have played in World Cups with good players like Raza and Muzarabani. So, it was a learning curve for us. Honestly, we put in so much work and effort, but we can never be ready for a team like Zimbabwe,” he said.
Zimbabwe takes on Kenya today. Both teams have qualified for the regional finals.
— @brandon_malvin