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 had too much moisture early on, making batting difficult with the new ball, while conditions became much easier when India came out to chase. India comfortably chased 126 in 13.2 overs, powered by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s record-breaking 18-ball half-century to take a 1-0 lead in the series.Raza felt the pitch favoured the team batting second and said Zimbabwe struggled because the ball continued to move for longer than expected.“Again, not up to the standard, I think. In the morning, I think that moisture certainly played a part, but I didn’t think it was going to play a part for that long. I thought it remained tough with the new ball,” Raza said after the match.“Unfortunately, we didn’t hit many boundaries up front as well, so the ball stayed new, and because of that, I felt the movement off the deck made batting even tougher,” he added.Comparing it with the recent Bangladesh ODI series, Raza said the wicket became much better to bat on during India’s innings.“I thought during the Bangladesh ODI series, there was a lot of moisture, and it remained there for a long time. Whereas today, I thought the moisture was there for the first eight to ten or even 12 overs, and apart from that, when India came out to bat, the wicket was very true,” he said.
Positives despite the defeat
Zimbabwe recovered from 32/4 to post 125/7, thanks to Wessly Madhevere and Tadiwanashe Marumani. Raza praised the pair for helping the team reach a respectable total and hoped the rest of the batting unit would contribute more in the coming matches.“So, hopefully, we get a better wicket for the next game so that even when we lose the toss, it doesn’t play too big a part,” he added.“Yes, definitely. That’s one of the positives. Marumani and Madhevere, it’s a new role as well. I thought they batted really well to give us some sort of a respectable total. We’ll take that as a positive, and hopefully the other guys can chip in as well so that we can put up a competitive total if we bat first,” he said.
