Brandon Moyo
SIKANDAR Raza has overtaken the great Virat Kohli.
It’s something that doesn’t happen every day in cricket.
The Zimbabwe T20 skipper continues with his impressive run in international cricket which has seen him break records.
In just 23 matches played this year, The Chevrons star all-rounder has managed to win seven Player of the Match awards.
The latest came in a T20 World Cup Qualifier Africa finals match against Nigeria yesterday in Windhoek, Namibia.
He turned on a brilliant all round performance to help Zimbabwe beat Nigeria by six wickets and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup alive.
He now holds the most Player of the Match awards in 2023, surpassing Indian great, Kohli, who has six accolades in 34 matches.
Raza also has one player of the series award while Kohli, who is regarded as the king of cricket, has two.
Zimbabwe needed to win to keep their hopes of qualifying for next year’s T20 World Cup alive and it was Raza who delivered a brilliant performance with both bat and ball to help see the team through.
After they were sent in to field first by Nigeria, Zimbabwe restricted their opponents to 110/8 in 20 overs before going on to chase down the target in 14 overs, finishing on 111/4.
The Chevrons now have six points from a possible 10.
Blessing Muzarabani, Carl Mumba and Ryan Burl all took one wicket each for the Chevrons.
It was yet another poor start to their chase for Zimbabwean openers as Tadiwanashe Marumani had to walk back without scoring a single run after facing four balls.
Raza fell for 65 runs after facing 37 balls while Sean Williams made 19 runs from 18 deliveries.
Nick Welch chipped in with 13 runs from 14 deliveries.
However, the Chevrons’ fate lies in the hands of other teams.
They need to win their last match against Kenya today and hope that results from other matches also go their way.
Zimbabwe are competing against Kenya and Uganda for the last remaining spot to the World Cup as the hosts, Namibia, have already booked their place after winning five games on the trot.