Colombo, February 9 Veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Brendan Taylor limping off the field after retiring hurt is a cause for concern going forward for Zimbabwe, said captain Sikandar Raza following his team's comprehensive victory against Oman in its T20 World Cup opener here on Monday.
Taylor was struggling while running between the wickets and was promptly taken off, with Raza later insisting that he did not want to aggravate the problem considering his importance to the team.
"The main concern is Brendan Taylor. As soon as I saw that, because I've seen that picture far too many times, I made eye contact with him and I wanted him out. This has happened before, where he carried on playing and made it worse," Raza said at the presentation ceremony.
"He's a key member of our team, so I didn't want to take that chance. Hopefully we've got three or four days, but we'll wait for the scan. His initial reaction was, I think it's bad, but we'll wait for the medical report," the captain added.
The 40-year-old Taylor was also retired hurt in his previous T20 innings last month. This is the third time he retired hurt in his last five T20 innings.
Besides Taylor's injury, Zimbabwe enjoyed a near-perfect outing with their pacers firing on all cylinders before the talented Brian Bennett (48 not out off 36 balls) and Taylor (31 retired hurt off 30 balls) shone with the bat.
Opting to bowl, Blessing Muzarabani (3/16) wreaked havoc with the new ball before his pace-bowling colleagues Richard Ngarava (3/17) and Brad Evans (3/18) joined him in the demolition job to skittle out Oman for 103. Zimbabwe complete the chase for the loss of two wickets in 13.3 overs.
"We read the wicket well. We executed our plans well. I think this is as clinical as we can be. There were boundaries here and there, and a few bad overs for us, but that doesn't really bother me. I thought the plans we set, we executed.
"Even with the batting as well, yes, ideally you want to win by a bigger margin and get a good start and finish the game, but you know, first game of a World Cup, a little bit nervous, putting everything into consideration, this is as clinical as we can be," Raza said.
'Did not put enough runs on the board'
======================
Oman captain Jatinder Singh admitted that his team could not put enough runs on the board to challenge Zimbabwe's batters.
"We were asked to bat first, and I don't think we put enough runs on the board. It's too much to ask the bowlers to defend 104; as a batting unit, we simply didn't click. In a T20 game, you need around 160 or 170 to give your bowlers a total they can actually fight with," he said.
Oman's batters had no answers to the problems caused by the Zimbabwe pacers.
Asked about their preparation to face the seam bowlers, Jatinder said: "We played a warm-up game, so we were ready for it, but the bounce on this particular pitch was a bit more than we experienced in the practice matches. We just had to cope with it.
"Like I said, you need a competitive score to give the bowlers a chance."
Jatinder said he has asked his teammates to "not let their heads drop" following the heavy defeat, and look forward to the remaining games.