Assessing the surface at the venue, Raza felt bowling first would give Zimbabwe the best chance to seize early control. “We’re going to have a bowl first. We looked at the wicket and it looked like there’s early movement, and with the wind going on as well, I think the wicket is gonna look to get better from what I can see. Give our seamers the best chance to make the ball talk,” Raza said at the toss.
The Zimbabwe skipper also highlighted his side’s extended preparation in Sri Lanka ahead of the tournament. “Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka share a very good relation, so they were very kind enough to allow us to come a week before and we were in Hambantota for a week. And then we have been here for five-odd days as well. So certainly those 10-12 days have certainly helped us to prepare. And adjust to the conditions and we couldn’t wait to get the show on the road. Hopefully this is the start of many good performances coming from Zimbabwe,” he added.
When asked about a preferred chase target, Raza said, “Certainly one more than what the opposition said, but the idea is to restrict them to a very low total as well and try and hit our straps early and then take it from there. The idea is to bowl really well so that our batters do not have to do too much. But having said that, whatever the score, one more will do. We’ve got three seamers and two spinners. So we’ve got myself and Wellington and we’ve got Brad, Blessing Muzarabani and Ngarava.”
Oman captain Jatinder Singh, meanwhile, was satisfied with the conditions despite losing the toss and felt a competitive total was achievable. “Absolutely. It’s a good surface, and it definitely settled down a bit in the second innings. The preparation has been excellent. We arrived in Sri Lanka quite early and had a really strong build-up. We played a couple of games, and since the conditions here are very different, it was important for us to get used to them. It’s also much more humid compared to Oman, so overall the preparation has been spot on. Based on the wicket, I think around 160 to 165 would be ideal. Anything in that range should be competitive,” Singh said.
Teams
Zimbabwe (Playing XI): Brian Bennett, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Dion Myers, Brendan Taylor (wk), Sikandar Raza (c), Ryan Burl, Tashinga Musekiwa, Brad Evans, Wellington Masakadza, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani
Oman (Playing XI): Jatinder Singh (c), Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza, Wasim Ali, Karan Sonavale, Jiten Ramanandi, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Sufyan Mehmood, Nadeem Khan, Shah Faisal, Shakeel Ahmed
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