Hobart, Oct 17 (IANS): All-rounder Sikandar Raza continued his glorious run in 2022 with a fantastic 82 off 48 balls, propelling Zimbabwe to a competitive 174/7 against Ireland in a Group B first round match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup at the Bellerive Oval on Monday.

Raza's knock of 82, laced with five fours and as many sixes at a strike-rate of 170.83, is Zimbabwe's joint-fifth highest score in T20Is, and also taking them to their highest score in their history of T20 World Cup participation, where no other batter crossed 22.

Ireland had an early breakthrough as Joshua Little got the glove edge of Regis Chakabva carrying to the keeper on just the second ball of the innings. Five overs later, Little again struck when Wesley Madhevere hooked a short ball to deep backward square leg.

One brought two for Ireland as off-spinner Simi Singh got Craig Ervine stumped easily in the final over of powerplay. From a spot of bother, Raza took over and unleashed a flurry of boundaries. He was brutal against the spinners and was at his aggressive best from the word go.

Raza was feasting on Ireland's short-ball attack, constantly scything through the leg-side region for his boundaries, including all of his five sixes hit majorly between deep backward square leg and deep mid-wicket.

He got into his position quickly and then went confidently hit through the short square boundary to get Zimbabwe past 170, before his wonderful knock was brought to an end when Mark Adair cleaned him up on the final ball of the innings.

He got good support from Milton Shumba's 14-ball 16 and Luke Jongwe hitting three fours in his unbeaten 20 off 10 balls, at a strike-rate of 200. For Ireland, Little was excellent in his spell of 3/24 while Adair and Singh had figures of 2/39 and 2/31 respectively.

Brief Scores: Zimbabwe 174/7 in 20 overs (Sikandar Raza 82; Joshua Little 3/24, Simi Singh 2/31) against Ireland