Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza was not pleased with the performance of his players in the first T20I against India on July 23. He even highlighted the tough wicket during his team’s batting and demanded a better surface in the remaining two matches in a three-game series. Batting first, the host nation reached 125 for 7 in their allotted 20 overs, with none of the batters scoring a fifty. The African nation were on the back foot from the start after losing the toss as the top order collapsed in just 7.2 overs.

Openers Brian Bennett (0) and Ben Curran (10) were back in the dressing room without making any impactful contributions. When Dion Myers (6) and Raza (4) were dismissed, Zimbabwe had no chance of putting India under pressure. They were in danger of failing to play the full quota of 20 overs, but the likes of Ryan Burl (26 off 35), Wessly Madhevere (39 off 24) and Tadiwanashe Maruman (27* off 20) took the score above the 120-run mark.

Sikandar reacted to his team’s performance in the opening contest.

“Not up to the standards. In the morning, moisture played a part, but I didn’t expect it to play a part for that long. In the last eight overs and when India came out to bat, the wicket was very true. We had thrown a couple of batters into a new role, and they did well. So yeah, there were some positives. Hopefully we will get a better wicket in the next matches,” he said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Chasing 126 runs, India reached the target in 13.2 overs, with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi scoring 50 runs off 19 balls, laced with 4 boundaries and 4 sixes. Ishan Kishan (35 off 24) and Shreyas Iyer (28* off 24) also batted well.

Mayank Yadav was named the Player of the Match for taking two wickets and conceding 18 runs from his 4 overs.