Sikandar Raza is a Pakistan-born cricket player who plays for Zimbabwe. He came into the headlines after his brilliant spell against Pakistan in the T20 world cup in the thriller of the matches. Raza picked 3 crucial wickets which turned out to be a turning point in the game. This defeat made Pakistan’s way to the semi’s difficult, now Pakistan has to win all three matches to keep their hope alive to qualify for the semi-final.
Match summary
Zimbabwe innings
In the low-scoring match, Zimbabwe made 130 in their scheduled 20 overs, thanks to Sean Williams for his valuable 31 runs from 28 balls. Zimbabwe’s captain scored 19 of 19 balls. Mohammad Wasim was the star performer for Pakistan as he had taken 4 wickets just by giving 24 runs in four overs. Haris Rauf maintained his economy by giving only 12 runs in 4 overs and also took one wicket. Shadab khan also took 3 wickets in 4 overs.
Pakistan Innings
Pakistan didn’t have one of the best starts in the chase as their captain departed early and scored only 4 runs. Their opener also lost his wicket after getting set at the
crease and scoring 14 runs off 6 balls. Shan Massod built the Pakistani innings by scoring 44 off 38 balls. It seemed that Pakistan is comfortably going to win the match.
The turning point of the match
Then Raza built his spin trap. First, he dismissed Shadab khan and on the next ball, he dismissed Haider Ali. In his next over he dismissed the well-set Shan Masood; he was stumped down the leg side after brilliant glove work from the Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Regis Chakabva behind the stumps. Raza completed his spell with match-winning figures of 3/25 in 4 overs.
Pakistan lost the match by one run
Pakistan required 11 runs in the last over to win the match, but they only scored 9 runs. Zimbabwe managed to hold their nerves and won the match by one run.
Raza’s motivation behind his match-winning performance
In the post-match session, Raza told the broadcasters that he had received a small clip from Ricky Pointing in the morning which boosted his confidence and was the motivation behind his performance.