Raza 2.0 gives Zimbabwe party to remember

Castle Corner, the epicentre of home support at the Harare Sports Club, was buzzing. Sikandar Raza had just pumped Avesh Khan for a straight six. India's spinners silenced the crowd for a while, before they found their voice again when Raza, the bowler, was front and centre of Zimbabwe's successful defence of 115 .

After the fast bowlers had made early inroads, India's new T20I captain Shubman Gill stood between Zimbabwe and a famous win. Raza had delayed his introduction into the attack until India had a left-hander in Washington Sundar at the crease in the 11th over. But he had to deal with Gill first. Gill lined up Raza's first ball and short-arm pulled it away in signature style to the square-leg boundary. Raza responded with a fizzing carrom ball that burst through the defences of Gill and knocked back the off stump.

Gill and India were stunned. Raza roared. The Harare Sports Club roared with him. They knew that their captain was onto something, and that something was Zimbabwe beating India for the first time across formats in over eight years.

Raza was part of the team that had toppled MS Dhoni and Co. at this very venue back in 2016 , but he had no memories of that T20I. Tino Mawoyo, the former Zimbabwe opener, had to remind Raza about it after announcing him as the Player of the Match.

Raza had bowled only three overs in that game eight years ago. At the time, he was a regular offspinner who would turn the ball into right-handers and away from left-handers. But with T20 cricket becoming an increasingly hostile environment to regular offspinners, Raza, like R Ashwin, has expanded his repertoire to become an all-sorts spinner. Raza 2.0 can bowl offbreaks, legbreaks, carrom balls and swinging arm balls.

You can't pick him out of the hand either as Raza hides the ball behind his back, like Sunil Narine, before he delivers. Narine had played a role in the transformation of Raza when the pair worked closely as part of Trinbago Knight Riders' unbeaten run to the CPL title in 2020 .

All of Raza's trickery was on display on a slow Harare pitch. Gill was caught off guard by the carrom ball. Ravi Bishnoi was pinned lbw by a seam-up ball that veered in. Mukesh Kumar was castled by a turning offbreak. Raza's spell of 4-0-25-3 put Harare into party mode.

"Yeah, we discussed that in the changing room as well and we said: 'listen, the fans are going to be there and lift us up'. So, make sure we use that energy and bring that to our game as well, whether batting, bowling or fielding and credit to the fans as well," Raza said after the match. "They didn't let us down, the energy was up and the vibe was up and they kept us going."

The crowd also seemingly roused the fielders to produce some outstanding catches and saves under pressure. Like Blessing Muzabarani's tumbling catch from short fine leg that dismissed Washington and secured Zimbabwe's victory. Like Johnathan Campbell's sprawling dive at deep cover in the final over to save four.

"Yeah, it [115] wasn't [enough] but I said I don't care about the result but as long as we go out there and prove to the crowd and changing room that we're up for the fight," Raza said. "What happens after that will look after itself but we want to make sure this is a fight and the opposition doesn't blow us away. We had our plans and the good thing is that we stuck to it and we backed those guys to bowl those particular overs. I thought what was really amazing was our catching and ground fielding."

It was all doom and gloom for Zimbabwe after they failed to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup following a shock defeat to Uganda in Windhoek in November last year. Dave Houghton stepped down as coach and it was followed by Zimbabwe moving on from the likes of Sean Williams and Craig Ervine.

Raza is 38, but the team management continues to trust him to show the new generation the way to the 2026 T20 World Cup. "Certainly feel really happy about the win today. But we got to take one game at a time," Raza said. "We're going to enjoy this victory but the job is not done and the series is not over. The world champions will play like world champions; we've got to make sure that we keep upping our game and take one game at a time."

If Saturday's outing is anything to go by, Zimbabwe have put the doom and gloom behind them.