India’s Zimbabwe tour polished a high-stake fifth T20I at the Harare Sports Club. The campaign for Zimbabwe started well, as they secured a victory over India with 13 runs in the first T20I. Zimbabwe skipper Raza played an important role in that win as well, as he earned the Player of the Match with a massive performance.The pace after that loss however, turned towards Indian side in no time. The Men in Blue outplayed the hosts in all spheres of the game and secured the series.
India lost the first match by 13 runs, nut the second match was the point from when the Men In Blue made a U-turn in the series. Abhishek Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rinku Singh ripped Zimbabwe bowlers. The chase from Zimbabwe that followed, was never on point and they had to take a heavy 100-run defeat.
This continued on in the third T20i, though the Zimbabwe bowlers were not as bad as compared to previous match. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe team failed again, as they fell short in the chase y 23 runs.
The fourth match offered a bit of hope for Zimbabwe as the team finally put up a score of 157 runs. However, their horrible bowling continued as India easily chased the target with 10 wickets remaining.
In the final T20I, Zimbabwe managed to restrict India to 167 for 6. However their problems with batting continued as before and got wrapped up for just 125 runs. This resulted in them losing the match by 42 runs and the series 4-1.
After the match, Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza praised Blessing Muzarbani’s consistent bowling performance through the whole series. However he also accepted that their batting needs a massive improvement and their fielding was well below expectations.
“I thought Blessing bowled well the whole series. Batting-wise, we are still below par, but we are starting to rectify the problems at the top. You are going to have bad games here and there. The grey area for me will remain our attitude in the field, we are still making a lot of mistakes, that’s controllable, we are going to keep working hard and hopefully keep getting better,” Raza said at the post-match presentation.
“My workload needs to be managed. I haven’t played any four-day cricket in the last two years post my surgeries. My shoulder isn’t 100%, I don’t want to be a guy who just gets a jersey. I need to go back, respect my domestic cricket and also respect my domestic cricketers who have put a lot of runs. I will go back to play domestic cricket and test my own fitness. I am still available for Test match cricket but at this point of time, I am not because I haven’t played a lot of four-day cricket. I’ll leave for Manchester for The Hundred in a few days time, I am looking forward to that,” he concluded.
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