Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza was highly critical of the Harare Sports Club pitch used for the first T20I against India, where the hosts were thrashed by seven wickets on Thursday.
Raza said the surface was “not up to the standard” and made batting difficult, particularly with the new ball, after Zimbabwe managed only 125 for seven after being invited to bat first by Indian skipper Shreyas Iyer.
“Again, not up to the standard, I think. In the morning, the 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. 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,” Raza said after the loss.
India fielded an inexperienced pace attack featuring Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav, and debutant Ashok Sharma. However, Mayank, making a comeback after two years, combined with Prince to run through Zimbabwe’s top order. Their extra pace unsettled the Zimbabwe batters, who struggled against hard-length deliveries. India reduced the hosts to 34 for 4 and then 64 for 5, before Tadiwanashe Marumani and Wessly Madhevere played handy knocks to push the total to a respectable total.
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India chased down the target in 13.2 overs, with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashing a record-breaking 18-ball half-century to give India a 1-0 lead in the series.
Comparing the conditions with Zimbabwe’s recent ODI series against Bangladesh, Raza said the moisture had a longer impact during that series, while Thursday’s pitch became easier to bat on when India began their 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.
The skipper also expressed hope that the pitch would offer more balanced conditions in the next game, regardless of which team won the toss. He said, “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.”
