Tuesday’s Cricket World Cup Group A qualifying match between Zimbabwe and the Netherlands was highlighted by an all-rounder’s masterpiece from Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza, who helped Zimbabwe to a decisive six-wicket victory against the Netherlands.
After taking four wickets for the Netherlands, Raza went on to score an exciting and undefeated 102 off of only 54 balls, making it the quickest ever hundred scored by a Zimbabwe player in one-day international competition.
Vikramjit Singh’s score of 88 runs, Scott Edwards’s score of 83 runs, and Max O’Dowd’s score of 59 runs helped the Netherlands reach 315 for six wickets in their innings.
At the Harare Sports Club, Saqib Zulfiqar contributed to the total by scoring run-a-ball 34 not out, which helped to push the total off of their permitted 50 overs.
Raza was the most effective of the bowlers, as evidenced by the fact that he took four wickets while allowing just 55 runs in his ten overs.
After Zimbabwe’s openers Craig Ervine and Joylord Gumbie had each contributed 50 runs, the outcome of Zimbabwe’s run chase was never in question because to Sean Williams’ 58-ball 91, which came after each of them had scored 40 runs.
It was up to Raza to hit the winning runs, and he did it by sending Logan van Beek over mid-off and into the stands for his eighth six after a magnificent show of power batting that had previously seen him hit three consecutive sixes off of Shariz Ahmad. However, it was left up to Raza to hit the winning runs.
“I just wanted to go out there,” the all-rounder, who was born in Pakistan and is now 37 years old, said after sealing the victory with 55 balls still to play.
“The stage was already prepared; all I needed to do was remain humble and respect every ball, but once I realized the opportunity was there, I took it.”
“As long as we come out on top in the end, we will be satisfied with our performance, and we will be satisfied with each other’s.”
In the other encounter in Group A, Nepal prevailed against the United States by a score of six wickets, despite having previously suffered a defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe.
The United States squad battled back from being 18 for four wickets to achieve 207 all out off of 49 overs because to the contributions of Karachi-born wicketkeeper Shayan Jahangir, who scored an unbroken 100.
The next best score was 12, and seven batters were unable to make it into the double digits because Karan Khatri Chhetri and Gulsan Jha split seven wickets between them. Sushant Modani contributed 42 runs, while Gajanand Singh scored 26 runs, but the next best score was only 12.
Bhim Sharki scored an unbroken 77 runs, while both Kushal Bhurtel and Dipendra Singh Airee contributed 39 runs apiece as Nepal easily won the match, finishing on 211/4 with 42 balls left to play.
After losing to the West Indies in the first game of the series, the United States were unable to recover and suffered a second consecutive loss.
In the next round of matches, which will take place on Wednesday at Bulawayo, Ireland will compete against Scotland, while Oman will face off against the United Arab Emirates.
Only two of the ten teams who competed in the qualifying that lasted for three weeks will advance to the World Cup, which will be held in India over the months of October and November.