Raza rewarded for his heroics

SIKANDAR RAZA’S heroics with bat and ball in the recent tour of Sri Lanka have earned him a place among the top 10 One Day International all-rounders in the world.

Raza who built his reputation as Zimbabwe’s specialist finisher during the ODI series while also taking some priceless wickets in the decider, has risen to 10th among the all-rounders.

Zimbabwe beat Sri Lanka 3-2 to record their first ODI series win over the hosts.

His unbeaten 67 was key in the record chase.

The 31-year old is Zimbabwe’s best placed ODI batsman at number 51 in the world, six places above man-of-the-series Hamilton Masakadza who is on number 57.

Raza’s century knock in the one-off Test also earned him some points as he rose 28 places to a career best 48th.

Craig Ervine, who also shone with a ton in the Test match, also made significant strides upwards after moving 20 places to number 40. This is also a career best for Ervine. Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer’s nine wickets in Colombo have helped him gain 20 places to a career-best 53rd place in the Test arena.

“Obviously proud of Sikandar to be rated top 10 all-rounder in the world. I mean, it’s special in itself. Craig has been a top performer for us for a long time. Stats don’t really mean a lot.

“To a lot of guys it’s about the team performance. It’s nice to see guys get the acknowledgement but for us it’s more about winning games and doing the best for the team,” said Cremer.

There were also gains for Sri Lanka cricketers with Rangana Herath the biggest mover.

“When we have the ball in hand we do look like we can score points but unfortunately we were the ones who stopped ourselves from scoring points today (yesterday),” he said.

On the other field, it was all joy as the Junior Sables Academy side continued Zimbabwe’s overall good win rate against Border CD. Winger Siampunga Sindaza was voted man-of-thematch for his two tries that inspired the Academy side to an impressive 64-15 victory in their debut Academy Week appearance.