In the run chase, world champion Indian team was all out for 102, that too against a team like Zimbabwe. This is surprising, but this is what happened in the first match of the India-Zimbabwe T20 series on Saturday.
Team India, which won the T20 World Cup last week, lost by 13 runs, although there was no member of the world champion team in this team.
At Harare Sports Club, India’s young captain Shubman Gill won the toss and chose to bowl and Zimbabwe scored 115 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. In response, Team India was all out for 102 runs in 19.5 overs. This is Zimbabwe’s third win over India. With this win, the host team took a 1-0 lead in the 5-match series.
This match reminded us of the match played 8 years ago, in which India lost by 2 runs. Then captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni could not score 7 runs in the last over.
The Zimbabwe captain gave an all-round performance. When he came to play, the team had lost two wickets for 40 runs. In such a situation, Raza shared 11 runs for the third wicket with Madhavre and 23 runs for four wickets with Diane Myers.
Sikandar scored 17 runs in 19 balls with the help of a six and a four. Then in bowling, he turned the match around by dismissing captain Shubman Gill. He took three wickets for 25 runs in 4 overs. He became the Player of the Match.
Indian captain Shubman Gill’s wicket was the turning point of the match. He was dismissed as the sixth batsman after scoring 31 runs. When Gill was dismissed, the Indian team had to score 69 runs in 58 balls and had 4 wickets in hand. After Gill was dismissed, Zimbabwe’s bowlers dominated.