Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza was not happy with the Harare Sports Club pitch after a crushing defeat by India in the first T20I on Thursday.
The hosts were put into bat by India captain Shreyas Iyer. The visiting bowlers, particularly pacers, got a lot of purchase from the pitch right from the outset, with the returning pacer Mayank Yadav picking up a wicket off the very first ball of the game, and there was little surprise that the hosts were restricted to a paltry 125/7. India made short work of the target as they chased it down in just 13.2 overs with teenager star Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (50 off 19 balls) finally coming good in India colours after a series of disappointments in England earlier this month.
Raza, whose team was expected to give the world champions a tough fight in the lead-up, was understandably disappointed, but he pinned the blame not so much on his batsmen as on the pitch.
“Again, not up to the standard, I think. In the morning, the moisture certainly played a part, but I didn’t think it was going to play a part for that long. I thought it remained tough with the new ball. Unfortunately, we didn’t hit many boundaries up front as well, so the ball stayed new, and because of that, I felt the movement off the deck made batting even tougher,” Raza said after a seven-wicket loss.
Earlier this month, Zimbabwe completed a 2-1 ODI series win against Bangladesh at home. All three matches were played in Harare. Raza made comparisons between now and then in terms of how the pitch behaved.
“I thought during the Bangladesh ODI series, there was a lot of moisture, and it remained there for a long time. Whereas today, I thought the moisture was there for the first eight to ten or even 12 overs, and apart from that, when India came out to bat, the wicket was very true,” he said.
The second game of the series is again at Harare on Saturday, starting at 4:30 pm India time. Raza hopes there is a better wicket in the upcoming match. “Hopefully, we get a better wicket for the next game so that even when we lose the toss, it doesn’t play too big a part,” he said.
