ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 27, 2022

Sikandar Raza

Perth Stadium

Zimbabwe

Post Match Media Conference

Zimbabwe 130/8, Pakistan 129/8

Q. Sikandar, great performance. At what time did you actually start believing that this match could come in your side?

SIKANDAR RAZA: Before the first ball was bowled. I personally thought, as I said, we were 15 or 20 runs short, but I really truly believe in this group of boys. We knew if we can field well and take all our chances and cut those important twos, we could really win this game.

The way Ngarava and Mubunu started the first two overs and then of course we had early wickets; Brad took a wicket in the fourth over, then Mubunu took one in the fifth over, and then I think Iftikhar got off in the seventh over, eighth over, so to have Pakistan down for 30-odd, I thought that was the start we needed.

Q. Just like your belief from the first ball, do you think there's another belief that this team could advance further?

SIKANDAR RAZA: We're going to take one game at a time. All our energies and focus was on Pakistan. Now it shifts to Bangladesh. We'll do our analysis. We'll take one game at a time. But inshallah, I genuinely believe in this group of boys, but what we have done is opened the group for everyone. Everyone who plays good cricket can basically win. You never know where Zimbabwe end up.

Q. Is Brad Evans your go-to man for the last over now?

SIKANDAR RAZA: I think all of us could be the go-to bowlers. I think it basically depends -- when Skipper asked what my opinion is, should Brad bowl the 19th or the 20th, my opinion was we try and kill the game. Ngarava has been bowling exceptionally well. If he can leave 15, 16 runs in the last over, I think Brad playing the first game I thought, the more runs we can leave for the youngster, the better.

But I just thought the way he bowled he held his nerve. Credit to him. Credit to the whole group to be honest.

Q. You've been bowling with a lot of variations in Australia. Is there anything we can expect from you as the World Cup progresses?

SIKANDAR RAZA: Possibly. I try and work hard on batting and bowling, as well, try and bowl as well as I can, try and bat as well as I can.

As I've always said, if one department doesn't fire, it doesn't really bring me down. It kind of gives me that extra push that I have to make sure my other department fires.

At the end of the day, it is what it is, and alhamdulillah, if we come out on top, for me, I find myself in a space where I'm grateful to be still playing cricket. Alhamdulillah that we won today.

Q. How do you rate that win in terms of your career? Obviously the No. 4 ranked side in the world, one run in defending a modest total on a good batting day.

SIKANDAR RAZA: Yeah, I think since I've been part of Zimbabwe cricket, I would rate that the best victory we've had because there's no better stage. This is World Cup, the biggest stage of all.

To beat Pakistan by one run, as you said, the modest total. You're going to have to do everything right to defend that, which we did. I think for me that's probably the best victory I've been part of with Zimbabwe.

Q. You got Man of the Match tonight; how much do you owe that to Regis's glove work there for your third wicket? That was pretty impressive down the leg side.

SIKANDAR RAZA: Brother, to be honest with you, fine, yes, alhamdulillah, I've got the Man of the Match. Had we won the game and this trophy could have gone to somebody else, I wouldn't have cared less.

Listen, sometimes it is like that. One guy gets Man of the Match, but if you look at all of us, the way Williams bowled, the Ryan Burl bowled that one over, the way Ngarava, Mubunu -- I mean Blessing, and Brad, this could have gone to anybody, and I wouldn't have cared less.

But the most important goal was to win this game, which we have done that.

Q. How exciting is it that you're still alive for the semifinals, as well? Looks like a really wide-open group now.

SIKANDAR RAZA: Oh, I thought the Irish boys did that yesterday, as well, to the other group. It's quite nice to be here with a group who's wide open now, and not just wide open, that Zimbabwe has got a really good chance to achieve something.

I'm not going to start looking or thinking about the semifinal. I'm going to take one game at a time and look at Bangladesh and take it from there.

Q. Sikandar, what do you see about your own performance, particularly this year? You have six T20 international fifties. One was in 2015 and now five in this year. Great year for your own performance. What do you say about it?

SIKANDAR RAZA: I'm a man of very little words when it comes to my own performances. If there is one word that I could sum up everything you've asked, when it comes to -- I know you've only mentioned batting, but I like to take my bowling with my batting. If there is just one word that I could sum it up for me, that word is "alhamdulillah." I have no words.

The journey my family and myself were on close to a year and a half ago to where we are now, it's hard -- it's really hard. Like I said, one word, "alhamdulillah" is basically all I can say.

Q. You said it was the best win in your time, but how about in the history of sort of Zimbabwe cricket? Had some famous wins against Australia, I think 1983 World Cup. Do you think this might even top all that?

SIKANDAR RAZA: Listen, I'm going to have this conversation with the head coach and actually ask him which victory was better, the 1983 one or the 2020 or this one today. I'll let him answer that. Once he tells me, I probably can answer that.

At that time I wasn't following Zimbabwe, as you know. For me it was just education, education, get graduated. I was a very late guy to pick up cricket.

Maybe I'm just trying to make up for the lost time.

Q. You gave a shout out to Ricky Ponting. Can you just explain that a little bit?

SIKANDAR RAZA: So I couldn't sleep much last night. For me, this game was playing over and over again; how am I going to bat. I made a few notes and I was reading them and I was going over it again and again and again, and I said, I'm going to stick with this because for Zimbabweans a lot of the learning is on the job. We don't get to play top nations a lot.

This is my first game at Perth, so a lot of my learning and a lot of Zimbabwe's learning is actually on the day of the game.

So I had a few ideas, watched a few games and I made a few notes and I was in my head. My body was sleeping, but my mind was constantly spinning, reading, thinking about the game.

So when I woke up, a friend of mine sent me a message and he said, Have you seen a clip on ICC page, and I said, no. He said, Before I ruin for you, maybe have a look.

That was Ricky Ponting talking about Zimbabwe and in particular me. Listen, some of my friends and family members messaged and they said they had a kind of tear in the eye. For me, I had goosebumps, one of the greats of this game talking about Zimbabwe and in particular me.

Not that I needed an extra kick, but if I needed that, that clip did the job for me.

I wanted to stay calm, but at the same time be pumped up for this game.

Q. How important this win is for Zimbabwe cricket, especially to inspire the next generation of cricketers back home, especially this win and other wins against major teams?

SIKANDAR RAZA: So brother, we spoke about this yesterday, as well, and I'll tell you, we have a lot of youngsters now picking up this sport back home. A lot of the parents are accepting that their kids can have a future in this sport.

I personally feel that we have -- this group have an added responsibility to make sure cricket grows in Zimbabwe. We always talk about that Zimbabwe has a very small pool of players but that's because not many players may be playing or taking this sport. We want to make sure that this group of boys can actually encourage and achieve something where not just the players but their families and everybody can truly believe that there's a future in the sport and we can raise the flag high.