After losing all the ODIs and the first T20I, Zimbabwe finally turned up against India in the final match of the tour to win the second T20I by 10 runs.
The difference in their approach was visible – there was more energy in their actions and more belief in their body language. They looked like the team that had nothing to lose and everything to gain. In the absence of their injured captain, Elton Chigumbura, Sikandar Raza led the team with inspiration.
After the victory, Raza played his part down and diverted all the credit to his team. “There is nothing much to say to your bowlers or fielders,” he said. “You discuss the plans and try to give as much confidence to your players as you can. That’s exactly what I did.
“One man cannot do anything. It took 11 players to win that match,” he insisted. “It must have looked like I was leading the way but I can tell you that I didn’t. It was my team; the 10 other blokes on the park that did it for me. Everyone wanted to win. When there is so much energy and positive attitude around you, it is difficult not to fall in that place yourself.”
Raza said the team got together before the match and made a vow that they will stop being a team that competes but loses and actually start winning more games.
“We were sick and tired of just competing against the better nations and losing in the end,” he said. “Today was one of the days when we said, ‘This has to come to an end. It’s time we start winning’.”
Zimbabwe put up a feisty performance in the first ODI, taking it to the end before losing it off the final ball. Since then it all went downhill. The batsmen struggled to form partnerships and bowlers let go off the pressure after creating it. Raza said the team made a conscious effort to not repeat the same mistakes again.
“It has been our history that we start a series really well and then our performances go down,” he admitted. “It happened in this series as well. We all got together and said, ‘This cannot happen again. We can’t keep repeating our mistakes over and over again’. We can also not hide behind the excuse that we don’t have enough cricket because now we have 40-odd games of cricket coming up. We have to start winning, one match at a time.
“As a team we have to win forward now. This could well be the spark that we needed. Now that we have tasted a win, I am sure the boys will remember this feeling and they would want to make sure that they get this feeling again and again. That would help us as a team to grow and also Zimbabwe to climb up the rungs in international cricket.”
The acting captain said this win had lifted the entire dressing room’s spirits. “It is something that you have to see for yourself in the change room. Our change room, after a long time, is bubbly, there’s jumping, joy, a lot of pictures taken – sometimes it is difficult to put feeling in words,” he said.
He also made it clear that captaincy is not something he is after and that he is just keeping the seat warm for Chigumbura, who had to sit this match out with a hamstring niggle.
“I love playing for Zimbabwe and that’s what I want to do. If I can contribute more than with my batting, bowling or fielding, I am happy to do that. But as far as I know, Elton is the team’s captain and he has the whole squad’s support,” he said.
Explaining the nature of Chigumbura’s injury, Raza said, “Elton has done something to his hamstring and we couldn’t risk it because we have quite a busy summer ahead of us. It was either he misses this game and recovers in a week or takes a risk and if something happened, it could take him up to three months to get back. This is something that has happened to him before so it was important that he rested because he is one of the most important players in our team.”
Zimbabwe’s next challenge is another home series against the touring New Zealand side. And he hopes the team carries its form and enthusiasm forward in that series as well.
“We will take a moment to enjoy this win, rest for a couple of days and get back together. That’s when we will decide what we need to do against the next opposition. We have made enough mistakes already to hopefully not repeat them in the next series,” he signed off.
