“Sikandar Raza is a special player”: Wasim Jaffer fittingly praises Sikandar Raza for his sublime century in a losing cause vs India during the 3rd ODI

Wasim Jaffer fittingly praises Sikandar Raza for smashing his maiden ODI century against India at the Harare Sports Club.

During the third ODI of India’s ongoing tour of Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club, the hosts suffered an agonizing 13-run loss, despite a century of the highest order from the in-form Sikandar Raza (115 off 95), who nearly managed to break his side’s 14-match losing streak in the format against India.

En route the stiff target of 290, the hosts were handed a blow early on, as Deepak Chahar yet again struck with the new ball to dismiss Innocent Kaia (6 off 9) during the third Over.

The Zimbabwean experienced Southpaw batter Sean Williams (45 off 46), then played some delightful strokes, to stitch together a 75-run partnership alongside Tony Munyonga (15 off 31) to keep flickering the ray of hope for his side.

With Williams’ dismissal, all hopes rested on the in-form Sikandar Raza for the umpteenth time to take his side across the line, and he was up to the task, despite half his side back in the pavilion.

A sublime century stand (103 off 76 deliveries) for the eighth wicket between him and Brad Evans (28 off 37) was all but enough to pull off Zimbabwe’s highest chase ever against India in the ODI format.

Wasim Jaffer fittingly praises Sikandar Raza

Former India Test opener Wasim Jaffer took to his Twitter handle, to first congratulate the Indian team on their 3-0 series win, and with it taking their consecutive matches winning streak against Zimbabwe in the format to 15, having last lost an ODI to them back in the year 2010.

He did not forget to praise the ‘special player’ Sikandar Raza, who smashed his third century across the previous six ODIs this month, to continue marching on with his red-hot form.

In fact, today was the first occasion that Zimbabwe ended up on the losing side in ODIs, after a Raza century in the scorecard.

Earlier, on the back of a sublime, maiden international ton from Shubman Gill (130 off 97), and a 61-ball 50 off Ishan Kishan’s bat, helped India post 289/8 in the scoreboard after 50 Overs.