Captain Sikandar Raza gave a strong all-round performance for Zimbabwe.Image Credit source: PTI
T20 World Cup 2026 is to be organized in India and Sri Lanka in February-March and it is not far away. All the teams are busy preparing for this World Cup at different levels. For this preparation, a tri-series is also being played between Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, where former T20 World Champion and tournament co-host Sri Lanka got a harsh reality check. In its very first match of this series being played in Rawalpindi, Sri Lanka has faced a shameful defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe. In front of Zimbabwe, the Sri Lankan team collapsed for just 95 runs and lost the match by a huge margin of 67 runs.
Captain Raza’s strong innings
On Thursday, 20 November, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe were face to face in the second match of this tri-series. In the first match, Zimbabwe had given competition to host Pakistan and did not allow it to win easily. But in the second match, it did not let Sri Lanka come even close to victory and with the help of captain Sikandar Raza’s excellent all-round performance, it registered an easy victory. Like the last match, this time too Zimbabwe batted first and scored 162 runs losing 8 wickets in 20 overs.
Zimbabwe had lost 2 wickets for 40 runs but young opener Brian Bennett (49) and captain Raza (47) made an important partnership of 61 runs. Both could not score half-centuries but they laid a good foundation for the team. After this, other lower order batsmen made small but important contributions to take the team to this score. Once again Wanindu Hasaranga was most successful for Sri Lanka and took 3 wickets. Fast bowler Ishan Malinga, who was making his debut, took 2 wickets for 27 runs.
Sri Lanka defeated by Evans’ deadly bowling
But when the Sri Lankan team came out to chase this target, its run chase started derailing from the 5th ball of the innings itself. The team had lost 2 wickets in the first 2 overs. Zimbabwe’s bowling was so tight that its score in the powerplay was only 25 runs. Then the process of falling wickets started from the seventh over and it continued again. For Sri Lanka, captain Dasun Shanka (34) tried to handle the innings but did not get support from the other side and with the fall of the 10th wicket on the last ball of the innings, the entire team collapsed for just 95 runs. For Zimbabwe, pacer Brad Evans gave only 9 runs in 4 overs and took 3 wickets while captain Raza took 1 wicket for 23 runs.