‘Not up to par’: Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza blames pitch for India’s defeat

Right, Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza (ANI photo) Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza blamed the pitch after his team’s seven-wicket loss to India in the opening T20I of the three-match series at the Harare Sports Club. Raza said the surface initially had too much moisture, making it difficult to bat with the new ball, while conditions became much easier as India began to chase. India comfortably chased down 126 in 13.2 overs, powered by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s record 18-ball half-century to take a 1-0 lead in the series.Raza felt the pitch favored the team’s batting second and said Zimbabwe struggled as the ball continued to move for longer than expected.“Again, not up to par, I think. In the morning I think the humidity certainly played a role, but I didn’t think it would play a role for so long. I thought it stayed tough with the new ball,” Raza said after the match.“Unfortunately we didn’t hit a lot of boundaries in front as well so the ball stayed new and I felt that the movement off the deck made it even more difficult to bat,” he added.Compared to the recent ODI series in Bangladesh, Raza said the wicket became much better to bat during the Indian innings.“I thought there was a lot of humidity during the Bangladesh ODI series and it stayed there for a long time. Whereas today I thought the humidity was there for the first eight to 10 or even 12 overs and apart from that, when India came in to bat, the wicket was very true,” he said.

Despite the defeat, the positives

Zimbabwe recovered from 32/4 to post 125/7 thanks to Wessla Madhevere and Tadiwanash Marumani. Raza praised the pair for helping the team post a respectable total and hoped that the rest of the batting unit would contribute more in the upcoming matches.“So hopefully we get a better wicket for the next game so even if we lose the toss it won’t matter too much,” he added.“Yes, definitely. That’s one of the positives. Marumani and Madhevere, that’s a new role as well. I thought they batted really well to give us some respectable total. We’ll take that as a positive and hopefully the other guys will chip in so we can put up a competitive total when we bat first,” he said.