Cricinfo staff
Published: Oct 30, 2026, 4:32 AM (14 mins ago)
Sikandar Raza was not mincing words after Zimbabwe went down to Afghanistan by 19 runs in Sharjah on Thursday to concede the T20I series.
He pointed to "the complacency" on the part of his team-mates after they had Afghanistan at 5 for 4 in the fourth over as his biggest grouse. "I will address that in the changing room," he promised. And "I won't be saying it the way I said it to you," he ended, his voice suggesting a smile that wasn't really there.
"For me, before I go too much in detail [about the match] - and I will address that in the changing room - the toughest part to swallow was the complacency that I saw from some of the boys," Raza said, the anger palpable in his voice, after his 106 not out in 56 balls had failed to prevent Azmatullah Omarzai's 116 in 50 balls from ending on the winning side.
"[At 5 for 4] some of the boys were probably calculating that it will be - 130, 140 max - at the end of 20 hours. Some of the things that I saw on the ground today certainly hurt me and I'll address that in the changing room because, listen, it can happen but I think that's where you have to be mentally very strong and say, 'no, the game is never over until it's over - we still have a job in hand and I'm going (2:32) to be the guy who's going to get the job done'.
"Before I dissect the game with batting or bowling, I think that's something that I felt today out there in the middle and that's something that needs to be addressed, not to take this game for granted because it can bite back and today is a great example."
Even at the halfway stage of Afghanistan's innings, Zimbabwe were on top, with the scoreboard reading 45 for 5. And then, after Omarzai and Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai (52 in 27) had lifted Afghanistan to 221 for 7, Zimbabwe fought, no one harder than Raza himself.
"When you're chasing 222, for me the biggest thing was to try and stay in control of my emotions because the way we conducted ourselves in the first innings hurt me," Raza said. "So when we go out to bat, for me it was trying to win the game from any position. That has been our motto and in my head, I was just calculating how best can I go about my business and hopefully the other batters chip in so that we can win the game.
"Up until the last two overs [by when they needed 46 from 12], we were backing ourselves to win the game but yeah, I think we left ourselves too much."