Zimbabwe vs Pakistan T20 World Cup: Sikandar Raza Butt. a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean international cricketer, caught eyes of cricket fans all over the world by playing a heroic role in his team's three wins in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. Raza was adjudged Player of the Match award in all the three T20 WC matches Zimbabwe won. Raza's latest i.e his third Player of the match award was given to him for his all-round heroics in Zimbabwe's iconic 1-run win over Pakistan at the Perth Stadium where his team managed to defend a paltry 130-run total. Raza picked wickets of three Pakistani batters including the match-winning run-out of Shaheen Afridi in final ball of the chase.
After the match got over, Raza attended the post-match press conference during which a reporter asked him when Zimbabwe started to believe that they could draw the match against Pakistan. Raza, in reply, came up with a savage response. The video of their exchange has gone viral on social media.
"At what time did you start to believe that this match could come to your side?" the reporter asked Raza.
The 36-year-old Zimbabwean replied by saying, "Before the first ball was bowled. I personally thought we were 15-20 runs short, but I really truly believed in this group of boys. We knew if we field well and take our chances, and cut those important twos, we can really win this game. And the way Ngarawa and Mbunu (Blessing Muzarabani) started the first two overs, and then, of course, we had early wickets."
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Sikandar Raza on Zimbabwe's chances of reaching the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-finals
"We are going to take one game at a time. All our energy was focused on Pakistan. Now we will shift to Bangladesh. We will do our analysis. We will take it one game at a time. But inshallah, we believe in this group of boys. We have opened this group for everyone. Anyone who plays good cricket can win," Raza added.