Sikandar Raza’s brilliance and a myriad of reasons to be optimistic – Zimbabwe tournament review
**Most runs –**Sikandar Raza (219)
**Most wickets –**Blessing Muzarabani (12)
That win against Pakistan was an iconic World Cup moment, and it was no fluke. Sikandar Raza was superb with the ball, and Brad Evans deserves huge credit for seeing the game out under such enormous pressure.
Beating Pakistan showcased many of the great things about Zimbabwe, particularly with the ball. Their attack always looked capable of getting good players out, but to do so when defending just 130 was a big statement.
And of course the other major positive for Zimbabwe was the individual excellence of Raza. The all-rounder was brilliant with bat and ball, finishing as the team’s top-scorer with 219 runs and also the second top wicket-taker with 10 dismissals to his name.
Raza’s reputation was skyrocketing even before he was singled out by the legendary Ricky Ponting for praise. From that moment on he was locked in as one of the stars of the tournament.
Dramatic last-ball defeats can happen, so while the loss to Bangladesh was extremely disappointing it won’t be tinged with particularly huge regret for many of the players.
However, the five-wicket loss to the Netherlands was a different matter.
At that stage of the group there was still an outside chance of Zimbabwe challenging for a semi-final spot, or at the very least pushing for one of those automatic qualification spots for the next ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
So, to underperform in such a manner was disappointing. Even with Raza’s rescue job of an innings, to be bowled out for 117 was a poor showing and left the bowlers with far too much to do.
Match highlights of Netherlands' commanding victory over Zimbabwe in their ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 clash.
The majority of Zimbabwe’s talented bowling attack are in their twenties and with plenty of time to develop even further.
Blessing Muzarabani, Brad Evans, Luke Jongwe, Richard Ngarava – these are the sort of players who can keep Zimbabwe on an upward trajectory.
It certainly wouldn’t hurt Zimbabwe if Raza opted to stick around for a few more years to try and help them qualify for the upcoming tournaments either.