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ZIMBABWE international Sikandar Raza and his Punjab Super Kings got great support from the touring Zimbabwe Under-19 cricket team as they pulled off a terrific win against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League at the weekend.
The Punjab side had some special guests egging them on in the stands as the Zimbabwe Under-19 players were present in the Wankhede Stadium to cheer the franchise’s Zimbabwean player, Raza.
Raza is only the third player from Zimbabwe after Tatenda Taibu and Ray Price, to feature in the IPL.
A video was shared on the official Twitter handle for all Zimbabwe cricket’s junior teams, called ‘Minor Chevrons,’ which showed the Zimbabwe Under-19 players in their jerseys cheering for Raza, who generously sponsored the tickets for the entire contingent.
“IPL Magic @ZimCricketv U19 Coach Prosper Utseya had a surprise for the lads after today’s impressive win, an IPL fixture courtesy of King @SRazaB24 who paid tickets for the whole team. Thank you Raza u made their dream come true,” the caption of the video read.
Raza, who can also be seen waving at the Zimbabwe Under-19 players from the field, replied to the tweet, saying, “Thanks boys for coming and am sure some of you guys in good time will be here too in future.” Setting the hosts a massive target of 215 to chase, Kings were staring at a defeat, but Arshdeep Singh’s brilliant final over helped them win the match.
MI needed 16 off the last six balls but the Punjab bowler conceded just 2 runs and also picked up as many wickets to thump Rohit Sharma and co. in their own backyard.
Earlier, PBKS was put into bat by MI captain Rohit Sharma after he won the toss and thanks to Sam Curran (55 off 29 balls) and Harpreet Singh (41 from 28 deliveries) and then Jitesh Sharma’s 25 in 7 balls, they put on 214/8 in 20 overs as they hammered 109 runs in the last six overs.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (44), Cameron Green (67) and Suryakumar (57) played impressive knocks in the chase and looked set to win the match, needing 16 in the last 6 balls, but Arshdeep Singh broke stumps twice with his yorkers to Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera as PBKS won by 13 runs in the end. — Sports Reporter/Circle of Cricket.
Online Reporter