The Zimbabwe senior men?s cricket team kicked off its 2026 T20 World Cup with a convincing 8-wicket win over Oman at Colombo Stadium in Sri Lanka.

The Chevrons recorded sweet revenge against Oman, whom they lost to last Thursday in a warm-up match.

Marking its return to the T20 World Cup after missing the last edition, Zimbabwe is in Group B along with Oman, Australia, Ireland, and one of the co-hosts, Sri Lanka.

Monday?s win saw Zimbabwe go to the top of Group B with 2 points, the same as host Sri Lanka, who recorded a win over Ireland on Sunday.

Zimbabwe staged a complete performance against Oman, whom they restricted to 103 runs in the first innings, thanks to Player of the Match, Blessing Muzarabani, who grabbed 3 wickets, along with Richard Ngarava and Brad Evans.

With a target of 104, it only took Zimbabwe?s top-order batsmen to complete the task, as they lost only two wickets in the process.

Opening batsman Brian Bennet stood tall, posting 48 runs not out, the highest for Zimbabwe, who scored 106 runs to win the match with 8 wickets to spare.

Speaking after the match, team captain Sikandar Raza said, ?I thought we bowled exceptionally well. We read the pitch correctly and executed our plans perfectly.

?This was about as clinical as we can be. A few boundaries and a couple of bad overs don?t really bother me; the main thing is that our plans worked, both with the ball and the bat.

?Ideally, you would want to win by nine wickets or have the openers finish it off, but with the nerves of a first World Cup game, I?m very happy with this performance?.

Zimbabwe will now face Australia on Friday before playing Ireland and host Sri Lanka, respectively.

The top two teams from the four groups will qualify for the Super 8 and Zimbabwe is now one step ahead.