A record-breaking 81 doesn’t make the scorecard.
There’s pride in the crack of leather on willow. There’s grit in the grind when borders, social, economic, political, still bind you home. On that scorching pitch in Harare, Brian Bennett didn’t just rack up runs. He made a statement. He etched his name into Zimbabwe’s battered narrative.
He scored 81 off 57 balls. No sixes. Twelve crisp fours. That’s the highest T20I score by a full-member nation batter without clearing the ropes. He surpassed Faf du Plessis and Babar Azam. Names heavy with centuries and weighty lineage. Bennett now holds that mark. He wasn’t flamboyant. He was necessary.
The rest of Zimbabwe’s batting collapsed. Apart from Sikandar Raza’s 28, no one breached twenty. The scoreboard read 175 for 7. Sri Lanka chased it down with five balls to spare. Bennett’s 81 became loneliness in numbers. But there lies a deeper truth. In failure, he carried us.
A social justice activist would see Bennett’s knock for what it was. A protest. A refusal to fade quietly. His stroke-making spoke for the teachers who left, for the nurses who fled, for the children who dream in Remittances instead of diplomas. He played like a nation watching so many leave, and yet one soul refuses to exit silently.
1970s cricket in Zimbabwe was once rich. Crowds. Heroes. That died. Then came chaos: the black armband protest of 2003, a cry for democracy. Flower and Olonga paid exile for a moral stand. Cricket and conscience became tangled. That legacy stung forward, creating a lineage of rebellion and resilience. Bennett stands in that line.
But this wasn’t protest. This was pride. With each boundary, he reminded us Zimbabwe still births talent. Still breeds resistance. Just decayed institutions and vanished uniforms weigh on the sport’s body. Those bright sparks often burn out. Brian Bennett’s flame felt different. Needed.
At 21, he’s already walked through fire and survived. He scored 169 in an ODI against Ireland—second-youngest Zimbabwean to hit a ton. Last year, he carried Zimbabwe to a century in the Boxing Day Test against Afghanistan. He still stands among the youngest centurions. And here he is again, mourning a loss with cleaner strokes.
Zimbabwean cricketer
There’s movement in the diaspora. The cynics muddily resent the team’s politics. But in Reddit threads, among impatient zealots, one comment sums up the hunger:
“Brian Bennett is the brightest batting talent Zimbabwe have had in a while.”
That recognition sneaks through the noise.
He isn’t the lone light. Zimbabwe’s team has history, built on foundations eroded by governance crises. Quota politics. Corruption. Institutional decay. But Bennett, brash, young, unbroken, seems to carry hope, not just runs.
He played with dignity. With composure. Without theatrics. He refused to chase glory. He chased responsibility. He played boundaries, not boundaries. And in defeat, he stood large.
When history records it, they’ll note 81. A quiet number. But a roar in memory.
Zimbabwe needs this. We need more Bennetts who don’t wait for success. We need not dreams of escape, but fight in four-legged bowls. The pitch. The turf. The crease.
Brian Bennett’s innings was more than a knock. It was a ledger: of what Zimbabwe still has, even when the team falls short. It was pride in absence of pride. It was a protest of belonging.
Let that not be the last note of our anthem. Let every 81 be a signal: we fight, we stay, we insist on being here.
- IshowSpeed coming to ZimbabweMarondera – Darren Jason Watkins Jr., the American internet personality better known as IShowSpeed, is expected to visit Zimbabwe as part of an ambitious tour spanning 20 African countries, a move that signals a growing shift in how global digital culture engages with the continent. Watkins, just 20 years old, has become one of the most influential livestreamers of his generation, commanding tens of millions …
- Us vs ThemThere’s no “us.” There’s no “them.” There’s only the comfort of pretending there is. People need enemies the way lungs need air. Conflict gives meaning to the meaningless.Without opposition, identity collapses. So we build one. We draw lines on maps, then forget who drew them. Every tribe begins as fear, then calls itself culture.We love belonging because it saves us from thinking.It’s easier to chant …
- We Turned Horniness Into An IndustryLet me explain this slowly, because if you blinked for five minutes in June, you might’ve missed the moment humanity officially gave up pretending it had standards. An actress, Sydney Sweeney, famous, attractive, very online-adjacent, partnered with a men’s grooming company called Dr Squatch to release a limited-edition bar of soap. Five thousand bars. Eight dollars each. And the marketing hook, the thing that made …
- Smoke ScreensThe Epstein Files were supposed to be a revelation.A ledger of the powerful written in ink, not whispers.Promises were made. Promises were repeated.They claimed the truth would come out.The fog would lift.Transparency was the campaign slogan. Then the files arrived.And almost everything was blank.Pages upon pages covered in black boxes.Names, conversations, details, gone.Block after block of censorship.Critics call it about 90 percent redacted. That is …
- The Redacted States Of AmericaThey finally released the Epstein files. And by “released,” I mean they handed the public a stack of black rectangles wrapped in patriotic bullshit and said, ‘here you go, transparency.’ Not truth, mind you. Not accountability either. Transparency cosplay. The kind where the light technically passes through, but you still can’t see a fucking thing. Page after page after page looks like it lost a …
- We Cant Have Shit AnymoreSomewhere out there, a very tired underpaid FBI agent had to write a sentence that would’ve sounded insane just ten years ago. “Criminals may use AI-generated images to fake kidnappings and demand ransom.” That sentence alone should qualify us for a species-wide timeout. And of course the internet did what the internet does and immediately joked about how this will disrupt the real kidnapping industry. …
- Africa is The New Cold War FrontYou ever feel like the whole damn planet suddenly remembered Africa exists. Not because they actually give a shit about Africans, but because the minerals are running low everywhere else and China has been scooping up the continent like it’s a Black Friday sale? Because that’s exactly what’s happening. And now, out of nowhere, every global superpower is acting like they’ve always loved us, like …
- My Unorthodox Thoughts On The US-Zimbabwe Partnership ResetOh look! America and Zimbabwe are “starting fresh.” Again. For the 900th time. The U.S. has now discovered that Zimbabwe could be “a great partner.” No shit, Sherlock. Anyone can be a great partner as long as they have lithium, gold, and a government desperate enough to smile at whoever shows up with a business card. And the Herald is acting like this is the …
- The World Didn’t Sign Up To Be America’s Captive Audience (But Here We Are)Sometimes I look at my social media feed and wonder when exactly I became an unpaid U.S. political analyst, commentator or whatever. I live thousands of kilometers away, my taxes don’t go there, I don’t vote there, and yet every day I’m force-fed a steady diet of American political drama like it’s my emotional multivitamin. I open TikTok: screaming match between a congressman and a …
- America’s Love Affair With “The End Of The World”Some days I think the United States doesn’t actually want to fix anything. I think the country is addicted to decline the same way some people are addicted to astrology. I think that’s bcause it’s easier to believe Mercury is in retrograde than to admit you forgot to pay your bills. Everyone is screaming about apocalypse like it’s a sport. Right-wing apocalypse, left-wing apocalypse, climate …
Zealous Thierry 