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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

The Zimbabwe duo of Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl gave a good sideshow, with impressive batting performances, in the opening matches of the Everest Premier League in Nepal at the weekend.

The tournament, which is being held in the shadows of the lucrative and popular Indian Premier League, was always going to struggle get the limelight.

But, the Zimbabwean batters illuminated the show with Burl cracking a match-winning 73, and taking 2-20, in Kathmandu Kings XI’s seven-wicket win over Lalitpur Patriots, on Saturday.

Then Raza had blistering a half century yesterday when he smashed 67, off 47 balls, but his side, Biratnagar Warriors, ended up in the losing corner.

The two Zimbabweans finished as the leading scorers in the opening round.

The duo were part of the national team squad, during the recent tour of the United Kingdom.

They proceeded to Nepal, for the franchise T20 cricket tournament, following the 2-1 win over Scotland, in the concluding T20I series, last week.

Burl, who is playing for host city franchise, Kathmandu Kings XI, was immediately thrust into action on Saturday, when his side were set a winning target of 158 runs.

Kings XI lost two early wickets to unfortunate run outs and Burl, who came in at number four, did well to complement opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz (59), in chasing the game.

The Zimbabwean all-rounder was on 22 from 22 balls after 10 overs, when Gurbaz was dismissed, with the team score on 88/3.

He then took matters into his hands and Kathmandu raced to 160, without losing another wicket.

The match was over in 14.2 overs, thanks largely to Burl’s unbeaten 73, which came off just 34 balls.

He struck seven sixes and three fours during the exciting innings.

Burl scored his last 51 runs of just 12 balls.

The turning point was when he harvested 29 runs, in over number 12, smashing four huge sixes and a four, from the bowling of Lalit Rajbanshi.

The performance with the bat, and the two wickets he had taken earlier on, made him the obvious choice for the Man-of-the-Match award.

Teammate Gurbaz scored 59 runs off 36 balls while Raju Rijal contributed 19 runs, to see the team over the line, with Burl at the other end.

“First of all thanks so much to Kathmandu Kings XI for giving me this opportunity,” said Burl in a post-match interview.

“I think it was all just about going out there and kind of repaying the faith they have shown in me.

“Since we got together, on day one, we have been talking about positivity, belief and determination.

“So, a combination of all that brought success today.’’

Another Zimbabwean all-rounder, Raza, yesterday smashed a blistering 67, of 47 balls, including seven sixes, and two fours, for the Biratnagar Warriors.

But, his team lost by two wickets to Chitwan Tigers.

“This one is for Nepal!”  tweeted Raza yesterday.

“The love and support from this beautiful country and Biratnagar Warriors for choosing me to be a part of them.

“Tough loss today but we’ll be back to win the next one,” said Raza.