Zimbabwe's captain, Craig Ervine, explained that seeing how Ireland bowled in the first innings of their Group B opening round encounter of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup at the Bellerive Oval helped them defend 174/7 well.
Ireland was reduced to 22/4 in the fourth over thanks to four wickets taken in the power play by Zimbabwe's new-ball duo of Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava on a chilly Monday night and a ground that offered fast bowlers more than just extra bounce. Ireland was restricted to 143/9 in 20 overs despite scoring runs, and Zimbabwe won by 31 runs.
It was difficult to hit through the covers on the up and it wasn't that short, those were the wickets that we got caught behind, said Ervine in the post-game presentation ceremony. "What we took from the Ireland innings was to get slightly fuller. We thought Ireland bowled too short at times. Credit to Richard and Bless for hitting their straps and hitting that perfect length.
All-rounder Sikandar Raza, whose brilliant 82 helped Zimbabwe score 174/7 in 20 overs, received special praise from Ervine. "It's wonderful to see that he can bring that form here again. Different circumstances, bouncier wickets, but it didn't impact his form. Credit to him. He performed very well today."
Ervine was pleased to see Zimbabwe win after competing in the 2016 tournament, but he was disappointed that Ireland wasn't bowled out aside from a few dropped catches near the end of the innings.
"It's a shame it's been so long since we last played in a World Cup, but we're over the moon. To put in a performance like that in the first game back in the World Cup, we showed we belong."
It was a little frustrating not to finish it off, but credit to all the boys for coming out and putting up a tremendous effort. "You always know in a race like this that run rate may be a possibility at the end.
Raza shared what he said to Sean Williams during their 42-person stand after being selected Player of the Match for his all-around performance (1/22 in three overs of his off-spin). I just wanted to bat because I didn't want to let my emotions get the better of me. The best way to get out of that situation was to not let emotions get the better of me. I just wanted to time the ball well and take it from there. That was the only thing I said to Sean: let's try to take the team as far as we both can.
Zimbabwe reached their highest total in their history of T20 World Cup participation thanks to Raza's 82-ball innings, which included five fours and as many sixes at a strike rate of 170.83. When they were bowling length, it was very difficult to get going. I was just trying to get into positions to pull, cut, and hook. All I was thinking was that if they don't miss their target, I have to do something, he continued. "I thought the wicket got harder, or I got tired, the second phase of my innings was poor," he said.
Raza has scored 598 runs in 16 T20I innings this year with an average of 42.71 and a strike rate of 154.72; his 82 is the sixth fifty in the game's shortest format in 2022. His performance in 2022 has been nothing short of spectacular, scoring 645 runs at an average of 49.61 and an 87.16 strike rate in 15 ODIs, including three hundreds and two fifty-sevens.
We wanted to say one thing: when we qualified, as much as we were happy to be here, we knew that our journey was not over, said Raza. "To be honest, there is no secret; the only secret I can tell you is to try to channel all the emotions of success and failure into the right way and try to complete with the best in the world so we can represent Zimbabweans and put our flag among the best in the world."
Raza declared in his closing statement that his current goal is to perform well in Wednesday's match against the West Indies. "This victory today is undoubtedly humbling, exciting, and joyous as well," the team said. "We didn't just come here because we are thrilled to be representing Zimbabwe; the goal we brought was to get into the Super 12 and take some of the top teams and see where we go.
In contrast, once the team meeting is over, "I wouldn't be celebrating this triumph. It's done, it's in the past. Now, I'm looking forward to our very challenging game against the Caribbean boys in 48 hours."