After suffering a crushing setback to Uganda, Zimbabwe put up their best performance against Rwanda to keep their chances in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Region Qualifier 2023 alive.
Sikandar Raza led the charge with a spectacular performance, becoming the second player in an international T20 match to score a fifty and bag a hattrick, a year after Namibia’s JJ Smit accomplished the feat.
Leading from the front, the skipper opened the batting and smashed 58 off 36 balls. His innings featured six fours and four sixes.
Tadiwanashe Marumani, his partner, also let it fly, adding 50 from 31 balls with three fours and three sixes.
In the death overs, quick-fire contributions from Ryan Burl (44* from 21) and Luke Jongwe (17* from 4) pushed Zimbabwe reach 215 for four.
In their defence, Zimbabwe’s energetic play with the ball ensured that the Rwanda chase never got off the ground. While Richard Ngrava (3/11) and Blessing Muzarabani (1/10) delivered early blows, Ryan Burl (2/7) hammered the middle order.
That man, Raza, came through once more for Zimbabwe. He finished with 3/3 after scoring a stunning hat-trick in the 19th over.
Despite this victory, Zimbabwe has only four points on the table, tied for second place with Uganda and Kenya, and must rely on other results to qualify.