Zimbabwe’s pace attack found their rhythm at the Sinhalese Sports Club, utilising a lively pitch to dismantle Oman and secure a comprehensive eight-wicket victory in their opening ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Group B encounter on Monday.
The pace trio of Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava, and Brad Evans dismantled the Oman batting lineup, with each bowler claiming three wickets. Their collective discipline saw Oman skittled for just 103 in 19.5 overs.
Muzarabani attributed the success to the extra bounce offered by the Colombo surface, noting that the wicket was particularly suited to the height of the Zimbabwean attack.
“We got something out of it, ” Muzarabani said.
“The wicket was really good for us, being tall and all, using that bounce.”
Oman veteran Sufyan Mehmood conceded that his side struggled to handle the conditions, stating that losing quick wickets in the powerplay proved costly against a tall bowling unit that extracted significant bounce.
“We could not recover from the early fall of our top four batters,” he said, pinpointing the phase that defined the contest.
“The tall pacers from Zimbabwe exploited the conditions very well as the pitch provided extra bounce.
“The wicket here at the SSC provided extra bounce and both Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava used their height effectively to get our batters in trouble inside the powerplay.
“It was a small target to defend. Had we got around 140–150, we could have taken the game close,” he added.
Zimbabwe made light work of the 104-run target, reaching 106/2 in just 13.3 overs.
Brian Bennett anchored the innings with a fluent, unbeaten 48, while Tadiwanashe Marumani provided a solid platform with a brisk 21.
Brendan Taylor looked in fine form with 31 before being forced to retire hurt with just four runs required for victory.
Captain Sikandar Raza joined Bennett to apply the finishing touches, sealing a dominant performance that served as redemption after Zimbabwe’s narrow loss to the same opponents in a warm-up fixture last week.
The Chevrons will look to carry this momentum into a high-stakes clash against Australia this Friday at the Premadasa Stadium.
And again the seamers will be confident of extracting something to work with at Premadasa.
