COLOMBO, Feb 09 (Agencies): Zimbabwe returned to the T20 World Cup in emphatic fashion on Monday, strolling to an eight-wicket win over Oman at Colombo's Sinhalese Sports Club.
In their first T20 World Cup since 2022, Zimbabwe skittled Oman for 103 before knocking off the runs with 39 balls to spare. Brian Bennett was unbeaten on 48 and Brendan Taylor, 40, who played in the first T20 World Cup in 2007, made 31 before retiring hurt. Zimbabwe's quick bowling twin towers Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani did the early damage, reducing Oman to 27-5 with none of their top order managing to get into double figures. "We have to take it game by game and we are very happy with the win," said Muzarabani, who won the player-of-the-match award. "I am just coming from a back injury and didn't want to really push it, so I shortened my run a bit. There was some good bounce on the pitch and I thought we used the conditions well." In response, Tadiwanashe Marumani began in positive fashion, striking four consecutive boundaries off left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmad as he duly cashed in on a favorable match-up. There was a brief hiccup, however, as Sufyan struck off his first ball to remove Marumani, who fell to a sharp Wasim catch at backward point. Two deliveries later, Myers got a faint inside edge as he looked to push the ball through the off-side. It was duly detected by wicket-keeper Shukla, who egged his captain on for an inspired review that suddenly threw a spanner into Zimbabwe's works. Bennett and veteran Taylor took matters into their hands, however, even as the latter found himself in all sorts against left-arm tweaker Nadeem Khan. The two batters played their percentages well, wisely turning the strike over while finding the odd boundary. A 15-run 11th over sent down by Nadeem completely shut the door on any remote possibility of an Oman comeback as Bennett led the charge. As Zimbabwe inched closer to the target, Taylor experienced some discomfort in his right leg while completing a second run. He retired hurt a couple of deliveries later, bringing Raza to the middle as the captain applied the final stamp on a dominant performance by his team, sealing the deal with a boundary, even as Bennett was left stranded two runs shy of a half-century.
Having completed the chase with 39 deliveries to spare, Zimbabwe have also given their net run-rate a solid early boost with stiffer challenges against tournament favorites Australia and co-hosts Sri Lanka looming.
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