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ToggleIndia, under the captaincy of Shubman Gill, made a great comeback during the second of the five-match Zim vs Ind T20I series, after falling short in their 116-run chase during the first game, at the Harare Sports Club. The young blue brigade showed their resilience to make a great return within 24 hours of the series.
During the first game, India on winning the toss decided to bowl first expecting the track to get better in the second half of the afternoon. The hosts didn’t make a great start with the bat, even after nailing a boundary on the very first ball of the innings. Their batters were getting starts but couldn’t hold the crease for a long time.
Brain Bennett played a decent small knock of 22 runs in 15 balls, which was of five boundaries, while the wicket-keeper batter Clive Madande remained unbeaten for his 29 runs to carry the side to 115/9 in their allotted 20-overs. The requirement from them in that Zim vs Ind, without a shadow of a doubt was wickets, and they started quite brilliantly by taking four of them in the powerplay.
Gill was taking off for their victory, but once he was bamboozled by his opposite number, Sikandar Raza, the only ray of hope left was Washington Sundar, to carry them all the way, which he couldn’t do, and found themselves 13-run short of the goal, as Tendai Chatara ended with 3/16 in 3.3 overs, including a maiden.
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There wasn’t much to think about the Zim vs Ind first game, as on the very next afternoon, Gill, again won the toss, but looked to bowl expecting the track to slow down during their defense. Raza, however, addressed the surface as the perfect summer track and spoke about it getting better as the game progressed.
India again had a tough start losing their captain Run scoring wasn’t that easy, as Abhishek Sharma looking to break the shackles miscued a big shot, but ended up getting a life due to poor fielding from the home side. The left-handed didn’t look back from thereon and celebrated his 100-run knock in 47 balls, decorated with seven boundaries and eight sixes.
His partner, Ruturaj Gaikwad, who shared that record 137-run second wicket stand, stood undismissed on 77 runs in 47 balls, while Rinku Singh’s blistering 48 runs in 22 balls carried them to 234/2 at the end. The same story of batting continued for Zimbabwe, who hardly had any answer to the spin weapons- Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi.
The latter ended up with 2/11 in his four overs, while the pace of Avesh Khan was hard to face for the hosts, as he returned with figures of 3/15 in his three overs, destroying the Zimbabwe side for 134, during the second Zim vs Ind T20I of the series, to level it on 1-1.
The winner of the third game would progress, as the touring side could look to use some of their young players to give them more exposure to international cricket.
Last Five T20Is for ZIM vs IND
In the last five T20Is of the Zim vs Ind, the Indian team has a huge lead of 4-1 margin over the Zimbabwe side, who have an overall head-to-head record of 7-3 between themselves in the shortest format of the game.
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ZIM vs IND Teams:
Zimbabwe Probable XI: Innocent Kaia, Wessly Madhevere, Brain Bennett, Milton Shumba, Sikandar Raza (c), Jonathan Campbell, Clive Madane (wk.), Luke Jongwe, Wellington Masakadza, Tendai Chatara, Blessing Muzarabani.
India Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk.), Washinton Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Tushar Deshpande.