Sikandar Raza's all-round performance helped Zimbabwe beat Sri Lanka by 12 runs in the second game of the ongoing Tri-nation series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday. It was absolutely riveting encounter after Masa-kadza gave Zimbabwe a solid start, it was Sikandar Raza who made an aggressive 81 not out to add the finishing touches to the Zimbabwean innings.
It helped them post a massive 290-6 and later dismissed their opponent for 278 runs to earn the win and celebrate the occasion of 100 ODI hosted by the venue. Zimbabwe who played the opening ODI in the venue against Bangladesh was also the participant of the 100 ODI match in the same venue to register their first victory against a Full Member at a neutral venue in 15 years.
After making unbeaten half-century, Raza took the key wicket of Kusal Perera, who made 80 while took the catch off Angelo Mathews and former Sri Lanka captain Thisara Perera. Thisara Perera gave the Zimbabweans a mighty scare but gifted his wicket to a full-toss, and Zimbabwe held their nerve in the end to do the formalities and clinch a nail-biter of a contest.
"I did a lot of wrong to be honest (when told he could do no wrong). Started the bowling poorly. I think the comeback showed a lot of character especially against the way Thisara batted; if he carried on for another two overs, he could've finished off the game. We never gave up though, and we did get his wicket in the end," said Sikandar.
"The wicket was tacky in the morning but flattened out. The partnership with Brendan and a few others helped put an above-par total on the board. Every catch is a pressure catch and we showed a lot of character. We never thought the game was out of our hands. We knew one wicket would bring another and we believed we could win," said Sikandar.
Sri Lankan skipper Angello Mathews hoped to do better in the coming days. "We were scrappy from the outset and gave too many runs in the first ten overs. They capitalized with wickets in hand in the last ten overs. We had wickets in hand, and the run-rate was good. But we lost wickets regularly and that set us back," said Mathews.
"Thisara was fantastic with bat and ball. Kusal was fantastic too but the others failed to support them to finish it off. Asela was great and so were the Pereras, so there are a few positives we can take from this encounter and try to perform better in the next one against Bangladesh," he added.
-Atif Azam, AA
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