Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza remained positive despite a T20 World Cup loss to India, calling his young team a 'work in progress'. He praised their batting but noted they could have executed their defensive bowling plans better against India.
Zimbabwe lost their second consecutive match of the Super Eight in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, but skipper Sikandar Raza stressed looking at the positives from the game. He called his young side 'a work in progress' and hopes that they will learn from the defeat in Chennai.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, Raza said, "I always say that you cannot win the game in the first six overs, but you certainly can lose it if you're chasing a big total. Today, I thought we were a lot more composed in the first six overs. We were trying to give ourselves a chance as well. And I thought the way the boys batted compared to the last game is certainly to take a lot of positives and heart from it. And that's what I'll do."
Raza also etched his name in the record books after becoming the first cricketer from a Full Member nation to complete the double of 3,000 runs and 100 wickets in Men's T20 Internationals.
India's Dominant Batting Display
India were asked to bat first, and the top-order batted brilliantly to give a dashing start. Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson added 48 runs for the first wicket, and Ishan Kishan contributed with a quick 38 off 24 balls with the help of five boundaries. Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 13 balls) and Abhishek (55 off 30 balls) also contributed well. Tilak Varma (44 not out off 16 balls), along with Pandya, took India past 250 runs.
Raza on Bowling Strategy
Speaking on what they could've done differently with the ball, Raza said, "I think we could have executed our defensive play slightly better as well. I think we ended up going at them with hammer and tongs, and unfortunately, there was a lot of mixed execution when we were bowling from all the bowlers. And they ended up getting a lot of those runs. And once the train goes at that, it's hard to bring it back. So I thought, if one thing I would say is, I think we could have executed our defensive plans better. That would have given us a better chance to restrict them to maybe 210, 220. And you never know from there."
Bennett's Valiant Chase
Chasing a daunting target of 257 runs, Zimbabwe managed to make 184/6 in 20 overs with the help of Brian Bennett's unbeaten 97 off 59 balls. Arshdeep Singh took three wickets as Shivam Dube, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel shared one wicket each among them.
'A Work in Progress'
Speaking on Zimbabwe's performance, he said. "We are also a work in progress. A lot of youngsters, most of them are playing their first World Cup, first time ever in India for us. Not that I want to use that as an excuse, but certainly the lessons from the last game, from a batting point of view, I thought we took them really well. And you can see how quickly these boys are willing to improve, and they showed up today."
What's Next
Now, India will take on the West Indies in their last Super Eight match on Sunday, whereas Zimbabwe will fight with South Africa for a consolidatory win in Delhi on Sunday.
Brief Scores
Brief Scores: India: 256/4 (Abhishek Sharma 55, Hardik Pandya 50*, Blessing Muzarabani 1/43) beat Zimbabwe: 184/6 in 20 overs (Brian Bennett 97*, Sikandar Raza 31, Arshdeep Singh 3/24). (ANI)
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