By 
By Ross Moyo
Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza scored seven fours and 15 sixes during his 43-ball innings hitting an unbeaten 133 not out in the T20 world cup qualifiers as the Southern African nation made light work of Gambia before edging another qualifier, Kemya yesterday.
2026 Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Africa Qualifier, was played in Nairobi Kenya and what might not have been as clinical as their record win against Gambia, was still enough for Zimbabwe to complete a clean sweep at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Africa Sub-Regional Qualifier B in Kenya yesterday.
Zimbabwe’s Chevrons put an exclamation mark on the tournament by cruising to a 61-run victory over hosts Kenya at Gym-khana Club Ground, finishing the round-robin tournament unbeaten with 10 points while Kenya ended on eight points. Both teams, however, progressed to the T20 World Cup Africa Regional Final where they will meet six other contestants for the two tickets to the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Zimbabwe chose to bat first and did not get the best of starts to their innings after winning the toss. They lost two consecutive wickets in the fourth over with the dismissal of Brian Bennet and Dion Myers.
The former Bennet being dismissed for 13 off 10 balls while the latter Myers was dismissed for a duck from the next delivery.
Before the end of the power-play, Zimbabwe suffered another blow as Tadiwanashe Marumani was sent back to the pavilion for 14 runs. With the threat of a low score looming, Zimbabwe eventually managed to dig themselves out of the hole as Ryan Burl put up a Player-of-the-Match performance courtesy of his 61 runs off 43 balls and two remaining balls.
Skipper Sikandar Raza supported his charges scoring 27 runs off 28 balls.
Another handy knock of 17 runs off 14 came from Clive Madande while Tashinga Musekiwa had a late cameo, scoring 14 runs off nine balls. The Chevrons ended up posting what turned out to be a competitive total of 163 runs for the loss of seven wickets.
Zimbabwe’s bowlers showed quality and class as managing to defend the score as they bowled out the hosts for 102 runs in 19 overs.
Nevertheless, what is a Zimbabwe win without a star performance from their skipper and talisman — Sikandar Raza? The Chevrons skipper and Trevor Gwandu claimed three wickets each while Brendan Mavuta chipped in with two scalps. Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava bagged a single wicket each.
A far cry from his explosive performances in the previous game against Gambia, yesterday’s outing saw Raza put his name in the record books yet again.
Raza took Burl (41) and broke the record for most catches by a Zimbabwe fielder in T20 internationals at 42. Raza, Burl, Craig Ervine (31), Sean Williams (29), and Wellington Masakadza (28) make up the top five Zimbabwe fielders with the most T20I catches.
Raza’s feat comes off 96 matches and innings while Burl’s 41 is off 82 matches and innings.
Meanwhile Zimbabwe captain Raza was excited about the win, revealing that the team had accomplished the mission they set out to achieve at the start of the tournament. “When we came for the tournament, we did not come just to qualify for the Regional qualifiers but to win the tournament and I am happy that we have managed to do so,” said Raza.
Zimbabwe 344-4 (20.0): Raza 133* (43); Jarju 2-53
The Gambia 54 (14.4): Jarju (12*); Mavuta 3-10
Zimbabwe win by 290 runs
Zimbabwe set a world record for the highest score in men’s T20 international cricket by posting 344-4 against The Gambia in Nairobi, Kenya.
Sikandar Raza scored 133 not out from just 43 balls.
Zimbabwe won Wednesday’s match, part of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, by 290 runs after bowling out their opponents for 54.
Zimbabwe’s record smashes the previous world record of 314-3 set by Nepal against Mongolia last year in Hangzhou, China.
Raza reached his century in 33 balls, equalling Namibia’s Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton as the second-fastest in T20I cricket.
Sahil Chauhan’s 27-ball hundred for Estonia against Cyprus in June remains the fastest T20I century.
On top of Raza’s century, Tadiwanashe Marumani (62 off 19 balls), Clive Madande (53 not out off 17 balls) and Brian Bennett (50 off 26 balls) all posted half-centuries during Zimbabwe’s record-breaking innings.
With the ball, Brandon Mavuta (3-10) and Richard Ngarava (3-13) took three wickets each.
Zimbabwe’s victory guarantees they will advance into the final round of Africa qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, taking place next year. Five of the other seven spots have also been decided, with Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya also advancing.
It has been a chaotic tournament for Gambia, who became an Associate member of the ICC in 2017 and are ranked 95th in the world.
They became the first team in cricket history to lose two T20 internationals by walkover earlier in the tournament having been unable to fulfil matches against Rwanda and Seychelles.
The Gambia Cricket Association told the media that “issues with getting the appropriate documentation to enter Kenya” meant they turned up to the event late.
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