Dubai: After the seven-wicket win over Afghanistan in the T20I tri-nation series match on Friday, Zimbabwe skipper Hamilton Masakadza said 'it was super special' to lead the team to victory in his final match.
Masakadza played a knock of 71-run in his last match to guide his team to win against Afghanistan. Zimbabwe claimed their first victory of the series after losing two games against Bangladesh and one against Afghanistan.
"It was super special. To lead the team to the win was really special, and that too in my last game. Also beating Afghanistan for the first time was special," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Msakadza after saying.
"It was a special feeling going through that guard of honour that the guys put up for me," he said. "I just got a lot of emotions going but, obviously, in the end, I am happy that I have pretty much done what the team needed from me, to get them into a good position to challenge Afghanistan for the win. I am very satisfied today," he added.
Masakadza opened the batting with Brendan Taylor, as Zimbabwe chased a target of 156. Zimbabwe got off to a flier. Masakadza got to his 11th T20I fifty in 27 balls.
The 36-year-old hit four boundaries and five sixes in his innings before losing his wicket to Dawlat Zadran in the 13th over of the run chase.
Masakadza played 38 Test matches in which he scored 2223 runs with an average of 30.04. In 209 ODIs, he amassed 5658 runs while in the shortest format of the game he had 1662 runs under his name.
"I started tearing a little bit in the morning, trying to get through the team talk with the boys. I am not someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, but I think this is the one thing that brought a few emotions out of me. Even when I tried to tell the guys and the team before I made the official announcement, I barely got through three sentences, so it's been a really emotional time for me," Masakadza said.
"I am looking at [retirement] not really too much as a door closing for me, but as a door opening for someone else to come. We have got a lot of exciting guys to come through, especially for that opening spot. There is experience still around the team, and I am really confident that someone would put their hands up and grab their chances," he added.
On September 3, Masakadza announced retirement from the international cricket after the conclusion of the tri-nation series.
