Zimbabwe smash 344 against Gambia to record highest T20I total

African nation Zimbabwe were on utter run carnage at the Ruaraka Sports Club Ground, in Nairobi, Kenya, as they racked up the highest team total in the history of T20Is. Notably, the world record was set against Gambia in Match 12 of Group B in the ongoing T20 World Cup Sub Regional Africa Qualifier.

Youngsters Brian Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani couldn't have provided their side with a more obliterating start. By the end of the powerplay, the latter had departed scoring the bulk of the runs in the 98-run stand for the first wicket. Dion Myer's five-ball short stay came to an end with Arjunsingh Rajpurohit getting rid of him. The third wicket did not take a lot of time to fall, with Benett getting dismissed just after notching up a quickfire half-century, by offering Ismaila Tamba his second catch for the day.

From thereon, it was all about Zimbabwe's skipper, Sikandar Raza. A scintillating exhibition of power-hitting saw him bludgeon the Gambian bowlers to absolute fragments. Facing 43 of the 78 legal deliveries after his arrival on the crease, Raza took the bowlers to the cleaners by launching 15 sixes and seven fours to leave the opposition shell-shocked. As a result, the veteran all rounder surpassed his previous best T20I score and also became the joint second-fastest centurion (133*) in the T20I format with his unbeaten knock.

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The hard-hitting Clive Madande proved to be equally up to the challenge, bringing up his maiden T20I half-century as Zimbabwe notched up a mammoth 344 for the loss of four wickets at the end of their allotted quota. In the process, Raza brought up the fastest century by a batter in T20Is (33 deliveries), and achieved the highest strike rate in an innings in T20Is for a batter to have scored a century (309.30). Gambia's right-arm medium pacer, Musa Jobarteh, topped an unwanted list of being the most expensive bowler in a single T20I innings (0/93 in four overs).

Zimbabwe are on an unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup qualifying tournament

Previous to this game, Zimbabwe have played three games in the same tournament. They have won all their games up until now, much like Kenya. This was Zimbabwe's fourth win on the trot in the competiiton. The top two sides from this tournament will make their way to the regional final, where they will be joined by Namibia and Uganda. These two sides were given a bye due to having participated in the previous edition of the T20 World Cup.