The Sunday News
Brandon Moyo
AFTER equaling the great Andy Flower on player of the match accolades for Zimbabwe, all-rounder Sikandar Raza’s tally has seen him surpass two international stars.
With 11 Player of The Match accolades under his name, Raza now holds the record for the most awards in men’s international cricket since 2022. He has surpassed two of the world’s best cricketers at the moment.
For his 11 Player of The Match awards, Raza only played 48 matches, 10 games less than second placed Suryakumar Yadav who has nine accolades and Pakistan stalwart, Babar Azam who has seven awards. Both Yadav and Azam have played 58 matches to date.
Raza and Flower (Andy), both on 11, are tied for second place in most player of the month awards in One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Zimbabwe. However, Raza has played 81 matches less than Flower.
Raza has, so far, played 132 matches in his one day career while Flower retired with 213 games under his name. The 37-year-old Chevrons star is also now on the verge of boasting the most Player of the Match awards for Zimbabwe, as he is one short of the leader, Grant Flower who finished with 12 awards from 221 matches.
The all rounder is in action for the Chevrons today at Harare Sports Club where they are playing their last group match of the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers against the United States of America (USA). The Chevrons, who have already qualified to the Super Six were sent in to bat first by the Americans.
A total of four changes were made to the team that played against the West Indies on Saturday. Innocent Kaia came in for the injured skipper, Craig Ervine. The other players who came in are Tadiwanashe Marumani, Luke Jongwe and Bradley Evans replacing Clive Madande, Tendai Chatara and Blessing Muizarabani. – @brandon_malvin
