Sikandar Raza unhappy with pitch after Zimbabwe's T20I loss to India

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Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza expressed his disappointment with the pitch conditions after his team fell to a seven-wicket defeat against India in the T20I series opener at the Harare Sports Club. 

Speaking in the post-match press conference, Raza said that dampness in the surface remained far longer than expected, giving the bowlers extra seam movement that made batting difficult.

“Again, not up to the standard I think. In the morning, I think that 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,” Raza said.

“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,” he added.

Reflecting on their recent ODI series against Bangladesh, Raza said that moisture persisted across entire matches during that tour. In contrast, Thursday’s deck flattened out considerably by the time India began their run chase.

“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.

Looking ahead, the Zimbabwean captain called for a more consistent pitch in the second match to ensure the coin toss does not decide the result of the match. Indian captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided to bowl first at Harare Sports Club in the first T20

“So, 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 added.

India cruised to a win against Zimbabwe in the first T20

Batting first, Zimbabwe stumbled early to 32/4, before recovering to reach 125/7 at the end of their 20 overs.

India eased past the 126-run target in just 13.2 overs, led by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s record 18-ball fifty, securing a 1-0 advantage in the three-match series. This also marked the first victory of Shreyas Iyer’s tenure as Indian skipper.

(With inputs from ANI)

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