By Admin 
After losing the first match of the T20 series against India by 7 wickets, Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza spoke openly about his team’s batting. He said it was ‘not up to standards’ and batting had become very difficult due to the humidity at the beginning of the first half of the match.
Zimbabwe team, which came to bat after losing the toss at Harare Sports Club on Thursday, had lost 4 wickets till the score of 32, but despite this the team took the score to 125/7. India achieved this target with 40 balls remaining.
Sikandar Raza said after the match, “It was again not up to the standards. The humidity in the morning certainly played a role, but I didn’t think it would have an impact for so long. It was difficult to play with the new ball. Unfortunately, we didn’t hit too many boundaries in the beginning, so the ball remained new and that’s why I felt the movement of the ball through the pitch made batting more difficult.”
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Comparing the pitch to the recent home matches against Bangladesh, Raza also described what the pitch was like when India started the run-chase. He said, “I think during the ODI series against Bangladesh, there was a lot of humidity and it remained for a long time. Whereas today, I felt the humidity was there only for the first 8 to 10 or 12 overs. After that, when India came to bat, the wicket became very good. So, hopefully we will get a better wicket for the next match, so that even if we lose the toss, it will not have a big impact.”
Despite the huge defeat, Raza found some ray of hope in the middle order with the return of Wesley Madhevere (39) and Tadivanashe Marumani (27 not out). He said, “Yes, absolutely. It is a good thing. It is also a new role for Marumani and Madhevere. They batted very well and took us to a respectable score. We will take it as a good thing and hopefully the rest of the players will also contribute, so that if we bat first, we can score a good score.”
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