Dropped catches, top-order's failure: Sikandar Raza lists reason behind Zimbabwe's 100-run loss to India

On Sunday, July 7, the Sikandar Raza-led Zimbabwe National Cricket Team locked horns with Shubman Gill-led India National Cricket Team in the second T20I of the five-match series at the Harare Sports Club in Harare.

The Chevrons entered the second T20I high on confidence, having defeated the Men In Blue in a low-scoring thriller on Saturday, July 6. The scenes in Harare were absolutely sensational as Zimbabwe beat India by 13 runs to win the series opener and take a 1-0 lead.

In the first T20I, Zimbabwe were invited to bat first and they had the perfect start to their innings when Wessly Madhevere drove Khaleel Ahmed for a four. However, Mukesh Kumar ended the hosts' joy by sending Innocent Kaia's stump cartwheeling in the second over.

Then, Brian Bennett and Wessly Madhevere took forward the innings but they were not able to score boundaries and got into a shell. They eventually finished at 40/2 at the end of the powerplay and had a platform set for a big score. However, in the middle overs, Zimbabwe completely lost their way and wickets fell like a pack of cards. As many as 5 batters got out during that phase and they managed to score just 50 runs. When it looked like the home team would get all out under 100, Chatara and Clive Madande joined forces and stitched together unbeaten 25 runs to drag their team to 115.

The total was very small and it looked like a walk in the park for Team India as their batting line-up had star players in Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag, Ruturaj Gaikwad as well as Rinku Singh.

However, Zimbabwe bowlers brought their A game and dismissed 4 batters inside powerplay before bundling out the opposition team for 102 runs. It was the lowest total ever defended against India in a T20I and the lowest against anyone in Harare.

The world champions will eventually play like world champions - Sikandar Raza

Coming back to India vs Zimbabwe 2nd T20I, the Chevrons were destroyed by Abhishek Sharma (100), Ruturaj Gaikwad (77), and Rinku Singh (48) and they conceded 234 runs. Chasing the target, they were bowled out for 134, losing by 100 runs.

Speaking after the match, Sikandar Raza said that he expected a dominant comeback from India as they are the World Champions. Sikandar Raza rued the dropped catches from his side and was also disappointed with the performance of top-order batters. Sikandar Raza stated:

"The world champions will eventually play like world champions. Dropping catches today certainly hurt us today. I expected 200 on this wicket today but they got 30 runs more. Coming into the chase, I thought it would be a close game but it wasn't to be, the top-order didn't fire."

Blessing Muzarabani's performance had impressed the Zimbabwe captain and Sikandar Raza said that the pacer will continue to grow if he remains fit. Sikandar Raza said:

"Blessing has grown by leaps and bounds, he is very hungry and his graph will keep going up as long as he stays fit. It's a task we have been talking about since a long time, today we came out positive and played our shots, lot of the issues occurred due to inexperience."