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Zimbabwe – 215-4 in 20 overs (Sikandar Raza 58, Tadiwanashe Marumani 50, Ryan Burl 44*; Emmanuel Sebareme 2/34, Zappy Bimenyimana 1/32, Clinton Rubagumya 1/59)
Rwanda – 71 all out in 18.4 overs (Didier Ndikubwimana 30, Martin Akayezu 17, Hamza Khan 4; Sikandar Raza 3/3, Richard Ngarava 3/11, Ryan Burl 2/7)
Zimbabwe won by 144 runs
Sikandar Raza put in a superb all-round performance in Zimbabwe’s 144-run victory over Rwanda in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier Africa Final 2023 match played at the Wanderers in Windhoek on Monday.
He scored a dynamic 58 runs to start the game and took a hat-trick with the ball to end it.
Zimbabwe changed their usual batting order when put in to bat by Rwanda, with Raza himself going in first with Tadiwanashe Marumani.
This is a role that Raza used to play during his early days in Zimbabwean cricket.
The pair got on top of the inexperienced Rwanda bowlers from the start, with Raza racing to his fifty and scoring 58 off only 36 balls before he was out to a return catch.
His knock included four sixes and six fours, and the Zimbabwe score was 99 for one wicket in the 10th over.
Marumani quickly followed him to his fifty, and was out for exactly that score in the following over at 119 for two.
The later batters all plundered the bowling mercilessly, with Nick Welch being caught for 18 off 15 balls and Sean Williams for 22 off 14.
The last two overs saw the fiercest hitting of all, as Ryan Burl and Luke Jongwe added 39 runs to take the final score to 215 for four wickets.
Burl reached 44 off 21 balls, with three sixes and five fours, and Jongwe 17 off only the four balls he faced – two sixes, a four and a single.
The only Rwanda bowler to emerge with reasonable figures was Emmanuel Sebareme, whose four overs cost 34 runs, but included the wickets of Raza and Welch.
Rwanda faced a hopeless task, and in their first six overs they lost their first five batters for only 15 runs on the board, three of them to Richard Ngarava, who first struck with the opening ball of the innings.
There was some spirited hitting from their wicket-keeper Didier Ndikubwimana with 30 off 34 balls and Martin Akayezu, 17 off 22, but both were perplexed and dismissed by the leg-spin of Burl in successive overs.
The end came quickly, as Raza bowled the 19th over with the score 71 for seven, and after bowling a dot ball removed one man bowled, the next one caught by Blessing Muzarabani off a skyer behind square leg, and the final batter lbw to end the match.
This is the fourth hat-trick taken by a Zimbabwean in international cricket, following those of Eddo Brandes, Prosper Utseya and, in March this year, Wessly Madhevere.
Raza’s final bowling figures were three wickets for three runs in 2.4 overs, while Ngarava’s return was three wickets for 11.
Burl, who also had a good all-round match, bowled a very economical four overs and took two wickets for seven runs.
Zimbabwe’s next match is against Nigeria on Wednesday, a fixture they must win to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
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