Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza stepped up with the bat and the ball to fashion a big 144-run win for his side in their crucial ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier 2023 contest with Rwanda on Monday.
Raza scored a quickfire fifty to propel his team to a mammoth total of 215/4 at the Wanderers Cricket Ground in Windhoek before becoming the first Zimbabwean to take a T20I hat-trick as Rwanda were skittled for a mere 71 in 18.4 overs.
Thanks to his all-round show, Raza was picked as the player-of-the-match.
He thus drew level with India superstar Virat Kohli for having the most number of player-of-the-match awards – both have now won it six times each.
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Raza struck 36-ball 58 while opening the innings for Zimbabwe and with Tadiwanashe Marumani (50 off 31) laid an excellent platform for Ryan Burl to blaze away in the slog overs as he belted an unbeaten 21-ball 44.
Rwanda lost their first wicket on the first ball of the chase of 216 and never recovered. Raza ended their misery claiming the last three wickets in as many deliveries to finish with figures of 3/3 from 2.4 overs.
It was just the performance Zimbabwe needed after a horror of a start to their hopes of qualifying for the 2024 T20 World Cup to be co-hosted by the USA and the West Indies.
Zimbabwe lost to Namibia in their campaign opener before bouncing back with a nine-wicket thrashing of Tanzania.
However, they were stunned by an unfancied Uganda who stormed to a five-wicket win leaving Zimbabwe in a precarious spot.
The massive win has boosted their net run-rate though and keeps them in the hunt of sealing a qualification berth for the T20I showpiece next year.
Seven teams are taking part in the regional qualifiers and only top-two teams will make the cut. As of now, Namibia are the frontrunners to advance thanks to their four wins out of four matches that sees them sitting pretty at the top spot.
Uganda and Kenya are second and third respectively while Zimbabwe are fourth.
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