Sikandar Raza Ton Creates History as Zimbabwe Lose Series

Sikandar Raza has etched his name into the record books with a T20 International century that set a new benchmark for age among full-member nations. However, the innings was not enough to lift Zimbabwe to victory against Afghanistan.

Playing in Sharjah on Thursday, Raza hit an unbeaten 106 from 56 balls. His innings included nine sixes and five fours, and it came when he was 40 years and 188 days old.

With this knock, Raza overtook Rohit Sharma, who had held the record after scoring 121 not out against Afghanistan in Bengaluru on January 17, 2024, at the age of 36 years and 262 days.

The century is Raza's second in T20 Internationals. He has played 146 matches, batting in 141 innings and finishing unbeaten on 13 occasions. Overall, he has 3,367 runs, two centuries, 17 half-centuries and 116 wickets.

Zimbabwe's total of 202 for 5 in 20 overs was not enough, as they lost by 19 runs. Little help came from the other batters, leaving Raza's century isolated in the scorebook.

Afghanistan had earlier lost five wickets for just 38 runs but recovered to post 221 for 7. Ajmatullah Omarzai's 116 from 50 balls and Ejaz Ahmadzai's 52 from 27 balls were the major contributions.

Zimbabwe's second successive defeat in the three-match series confirmed that they had lost the series.