The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Chevrons to go through World Cup qualifiers again

- Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

NEW Zealand batting great Ross Taylor is the latest cricket icon to lavish praises on Zimbabwe internatio­nal Sikandar Raza who he rated as the best all-rounder at the ICC Cricket World Cup that ends this weekend in Australia.

Raza and teammate Sean Williams made important gains in the top 10 of the latest Internatio­nal Cricket Council Men’s T20 allrounder rankings following a good outing at the jamboree in Australia.

Zimbabwe were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the Super 12 and returned home late on Tuesday night. But their spirited performanc­es, especially in the early stages of the campaign, won them many hearts.

Taylor, who had an illustriou­s internatio­nal career that spanned over 16 years with the Black Caps of New Zealand, picked Raza as his best all-rounder at the tournament.

With 219 runs and 10 wickets in this World Cup, Raza became the second player to ever score over 200 runs and take over 10 wickets at a World Cup, after Australian great Shane Watson.

“The best all-rounder of the tournament to date, I would say it’s Raza,” Taylor told the ICC media.

“I think he has been consistent. Not only in the qualifying matches but Zimbabwe have had a couple of upsets and that’s down to the way he has bowled and batted that has gone up there.

“He has taken the game on; he has been around for a while and he is gonna be a big player for them,” said Taylor.

Apart from the ICC T20 World Cup performanc­es, Raza has hit many milestones this year.

Raza and Williams led the Zimbabwean players in the rankings released yesterday. Raza gained two places to number four while Williams stormed back into the top 10, after also moving two places up the ladder to number nine in the global rankings of the T20I all-rounders.

The duo was key to Zimbabwe’s campaign at the ICC T20 World Cup.

Raza scored 219 runs and had 10 wickets during the month.

His highest score was 82 against Ireland and was complement­ed by bowling figures of 3-19 against West Indies.

He is also leading the table in the ESPN Cricinfo’s Most Valuable Players of the series.

“Total Impact for a player in a match is a numerical value which is the sum of his batting and bowling Impacts. These Impacts are calculated based on the context of a batting/bowling performanc­e,” explains Cricinfo.

Williams was also in good form as he was Zimbabwe’s second highest contributo­r of runs with 155 in the bag and five wickets.

Bangladesh’s Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi of Afghanista­n and Indian star Hardik Pandya retained their places in the top three of the ICC T20I all-rounders.

But the Zimbabwe national team, who finished overall 10th at the ICC T20 World Cup, remained rooted at number 11 in the ICC T20I team rankings.

This means the Chevrons will need to go through the qualifying process again for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in West Indies and USA.

The ninth edition of the T20 World Cup will be historic in more ways than one as a record 20 teams are set to feature in one edition of the tournament for the first time in history.

Practicall­y, the road to qualificat­ion began this year and 12 teams have already earned a direct qualificat­ion, with eight of the slots filled by the teams’ performanc­es during the current tournament in Australia.

According to the format laid down by the tournament organisers, the top four teams in each group of this year’s Super 12 received safe passage into the 2024 competitio­n.

Zimbabwe finished bottom of Group 2 which was won by India, with Pakistan rallying back to snatch second place and a place in the semi-finals.

South Africa and the Netherland­s completed the top four while Bangladesh were fifth and Zimbabwe last.

New Zealand, England, Australia and Sri Lanka finished in the top four in Group one and have also secured automatic qualificat­ion to the 2024 jamboree.

Next two highest-ranked teams on the ICC T20I rankings — Bangladesh and Afghanista­n — also benefited from the expansion to 20 teams and will not need to play in the qualifiers. Hosts USA and West Indies complete the list of 12 teams that have already secured qualificat­ion.

Zimbabwe and Ireland will be the only full member nations to play in the qualifiers for the next edition, with eight World Cup spots on the offer.

The qualificat­ion will be decided by regional qualifiers in Africa, Asia and Europe, while the Americas and East Asia-Pacific regions will have one team each make it to the ICC event.

The African Qualifier is set to begin as early as next week but Zimbabwe, Namibia and Uganda have a bye in the preliminar­y tournament to be hosted by Rwanda starting next Tuesday.

A total of 16 countries have been pooled in two groups of eight. Group A comprises Botswana, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho and Malawi.

Hosts Rwanda are in Group B of the qualifiers alongside Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, St Helena, Seychelles, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.

The two top teams from each group will progress to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa regional final, which is the decisive stage that will produce the two teams to represent Africa at the Men’s T20 World ICC Cup 2024.

 ?? ICC ?? MOVING MOUNTAINS . . . Sean Williams bounced back to the top 10 of the ICC T20I All Rounder rankings yesterday following a good showing at the T20 Men’s World Cup in Australia.
ICC MOVING MOUNTAINS . . . Sean Williams bounced back to the top 10 of the ICC T20I All Rounder rankings yesterday following a good showing at the T20 Men’s World Cup in Australia.
 ?? ICC ?? HOT PROPERTY . . . Sikandar Raza cemented his position as Zimbabwe’s highest ranked T20I all-rounder after making significan­t gains on the Men’s T20 rankings yesterday
ICC HOT PROPERTY . . . Sikandar Raza cemented his position as Zimbabwe’s highest ranked T20I all-rounder after making significan­t gains on the Men’s T20 rankings yesterday

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