Zimbabwean captain Sikandar Raza criticized the performance after his team lost by seven wickets to India in the opening T20I in three matches at the Harare Sports Club. Raza said the surface was very humid early on, making it difficult to hit the new ball, while things got easier when India came out to chase. India chased down a comfortable 126 in 13.2 overs, helped by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who smashed a record 18-ball half-century to take a 1-0 lead in the series.Raza felt that the match was in favor of the team batting second and said Zimbabwe suffered because the ball continued to move for longer than expected.“Again, not to the extent, I think. In the morning, I think the humidity played a role, but I didn’t think it would play a part for a long time. I thought it was still difficult with the new ball,” Raza said after the match.“Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot of boundaries up front, so the ball was still fresh, and because of that, I felt the movement on the pitch was making for a strong hit,” he added.Compared to the recent Bangladesh ODI series, Raza said that the wicket was the best batting during the Indian innings.“I thought that during the Bangladesh ODI series, there was a lot of humidity, and it lasted for a long time. Even today, I thought that the humidity was there for the first eight or ten or even 12 overs, and apart from that, when India came out to bat, the wicket was very real,” he said.
Good to even lose
Zimbabwe recovered from 32/4 to 125/7, thanks to Wessly Madhevere and Tadiwanashe Marumani. Raza has praised the duo for helping the team reach a respectable level and hopes the other batsmen will contribute more in the upcoming matches.“So we hope that we will get a good wicket in the next game so that even if we lose the toss it will not play a big role,” he added.“Yes, of course. This is one of the good ones. Marumani and Madhevere, it’s a new job. I thought they batted well to give us some kind of respectable number. We’ll take that as a good thing, and hopefully the other guys can be agitated so that we can put enough competition if we bat first,” he said.
