How Ricky Ponting inspired Sikandar Raza to plot Pakistan’s downfall in T20 World Cup

“One more thing I thought. There was a small clip sent to me this morning of Ricky Ponting having a small word. I was excited, I was nervous, I was thrilled about today,” Raza said at the post-match presentation.

"He just seems to know exactly what to do, when to do it." 🙌

Ricky Ponting talks about the brilliance of Sikandar Raza and his recent success.

Lessons by @BYJUS 📽️#Byjus | #KeepLearning pic.twitter.com/lWm4dKdnpg

— ICC (@ICC) October 27, 2022

“The motivation was always there but if I needed a little push, I thought that clip did a wonder so thanks very much to Ricky as well.” Overcome with emotions, the Pakistan-born Raza was at loss of words. “I could not 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, I was reading them and going over it again and again. I said I am going to stick with this. For Zimbabwe a lot of learning is on the job, on the day of the game. We don’t get to play top nations a lot. We don’t get to play under lights a lot, this is my first game at Perth.

“When I woke up, my friend sent me a message and said, ‘hey, have you seen this clip on the ICC page?’ I said no. He said, ‘Before I ruin it for you, have a look maybe.’ It was Ricky Ponting talking about Zimbabwe and in particular me. Some of my friends and family members messaged and said they had kind of a 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 one, that did the job for me. So I wanted to stay calm but at the same time be pumped up for this game.”

“I think I’m lost for words. My throat’s dry, probably because of all the emotions. I can’t tell you how proud I am of this bunch of boys,” Raza said.

“The way our seamers started at the top as well is just unbelievable and the way we backed it up in the field and the way we kept believing, I don’t think there’s any words I can share right now.” Asked about the wrist tapping signal he sent to his captain Craig Ervine, Raza said, “When we were coming to Australia, I said to my captain, ‘If you become Man of the Match, pick any watch from the catalogue and I’ll buy you. But if I win Man of the Match, then you’re gonna buy me one.

“So I’m just reminding him that you now owe me three watches now actually.” Zimbabwe captain Ervine termed the win as a special one.

🇿🇼 beat Pakistan 🇵🇰 by one run! 🔥#PAKvZIM | #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/jTgHlwzC9r

— Zimbabwe Cricket (@ZimCricketv) October 27, 2022

“Especially for the work that we did to get into the Super 12s and we didn’t want our tournament to end there. We wanted to come in and play some really good cricket against some top teams.

“We did that exceptionally well today. I thought after our batting performance, we thought that we were maybe 20 or 25 short. But our seamers hit their straps early on and there was just a little bit more in the wicket compared to when we started off,” Ervine said.

On Raza, he said, “He came to the party as he always does and picked up a few crucial wickets in the middle there.

“I think he’s got three Man of the Matches so I’m gonna be broke by the time we get home.” A disappointed Pakistan captain Babar Azam said his team’s batting department was not up to the mark.

“We had a bad first six overs, but Shadab (Khan) and Shan (Masood) built a partnership but unfortunately Shadab got out and then back to back wickets and pressure built on the batting,” he said.

“First six overs we are not using the new ball good. Later on, we finished well. We’ll sit together and learn from our mistakes and come back hard next match.”