Sikandar Raza scored an incredible 62 off 42 balls in the opening innings, smashing two sixes and five fours. With 37 balls, he scored his half-century. When he accomplished the feat, Sikandar Raza made history by being the first batsman in T20I cricket history to reach five consecutive fifties.
In the island nation, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka are presently engaged in a three-match Twenty20 International series. On Sunday, January 14, Sri Lanka won the first Twenty20 International match in Colombo by three wickets, and Sikandar Raza and company lost it on the final ball.
The captain of Zimbabwe entered the series having scored four fifties in his previous four Twenty20 International matches. Zimbabwe’s last four matches in the Africa Region Qualifier, which took place in Namibia in November 2023, featured these four half-centuries. In the matches against Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Kenya, Raza scored 48 (39), 58 (36), 65 (37), and 82 (48), respectively.
Zimbabwe placed third in the points table behind Namibia and Uganda, who secured slots in the highly anticipated T20 World Cup 2024, and therefore narrowly missed out on qualifying.
Raza was in the company of Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Craig Williams, Rayyan Pathan, Gustav Mckeon, and Reeza Hendricks, who had all achieved four straight fifties in the shortest format of international cricket, prior to his half-century against Sri Lanka in the opening Twenty20 International. With six straight fifty-plus runs in T20Is, Sophie Devine, a women’s cricket player from New Zealand, owns the record.
In each of his last five games, Sikandar Raza has also claimed at least two wickets.
He finished with impressive figures of 3/13 in his four overs against Sri Lanka. But his all-around valor was insufficient to see Zimbabwe through to the finish line.
In pursuit of a 144-run total, Dushmantha Chameera struck six runs off the last two balls of Blessing Muzarabani’s 20th over as Sri Lanka puffed and puffered their way to victory. After making his T20I comeback, Angelo Mathews was named Player of the Match for his 38-ball 46, which enabled the hosts to overcome 83/6 at the end of 14 overs.
The second Twenty20 International will take place in Colombo on Tuesday, January 16. For Zimbabwe to maintain the series, they must win the game.
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