A young Indian team, led by Shubman Gill suffered a shock loss by 13 runs at the hands of Zimbabwe in the T20I series opener at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday, 6 July.
In a chase of 116 runs, the visitors were bundled out for 102 in 19.5 overs.
The Men in Blue had a rocky start to their chase, losing four wickets within the first five overs. Opener Abhishek Sharma and number five batter Rinku Singh were dismissed for ducks, while number three batter Ruturaj Gaikwad and wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel each managed to score only 7 runs. Riyan Parag added just 2 runs to the total.
Indian skipper Shubman Gill was the top scorer for the visitors, who scored 31 runs off 29 balls before being dismissed by his counterpart Sikandar Raza. Ravi Bishnoi was the seventh batter to be dismissed after scoring 9 runs from 8 balls.
Raza claimed his second wicket of the day by dismissing Avesh Khan for 16 runs. The Zimbabwe skipper secured his third wicket when he dismissed Mukesh Kumar.
With 16 needed off the final over, India were bundled out with Chatara putting the final nail in the coffin by dismissing Washington Sundar.
Bishnoi's Career Best Spell
Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi picked career-best T20I figures of 4-13 as India restricted Zimbabwe to a modest 115/9. Bishnoi sliced through Zimbabwe’s majorly inexperienced batting line-up with his deceptive googlies in the middle overs to pick a four-wicket haul.
Washington Sundar was hard to hit too in picking 2-11, while Mukesh Kumar and Avesh Khan had a scalp apiece. It took a useful 29 not out from Clive Madande for Zimbabwe to reach at least a respectable total after being inserted into batting first by India.
Mukesh got India the first breakthrough as Innocent Kaia didn’t account for the swing on a fuller ball and saw his leg stump being uprooted for a golden duck in the second over. Brian Bennett got going with two fours off Mukesh, followed by him and Wesley Madhevere taking two boundaries each off an erring Khaleel Ahmed in the fifth over, which went for 17 runs.
Batters Fell Like a Pack of Cards
Bennett, dropped on 18 by Avesh off Khaleel, was dismissed for 23 when he looked to drive a Bishnoi googly, but the ball struck off-stump and bail fell in the last over of power-play. The leg-spinner struck again in his second over when Madhevere attempted to sweep but missed the quicker googly and was castled for 21.
Skipper Sikandar Raza swept Abhishek Sharma for four, before greeting Avesh with the full face of the bat to elegantly loft straight over the bowler’s head for six. But after that, Zimbabwe’s innings began to fall like nine pins. In an attempt to up the scoring rate, Raza went for a pull, off Avesh, but holed out to long-on.
Madande's Cameo
A huge mix-up resulted in Dion Myers and Jonathan Campbell running to the striker's end, and the fielder at point threw the ball to the non-striker’s end to have the latter run out for a golden duck. Washington then had Myers giving him a return catch on his bowling and beat Wellington Masakadza on the outside edge to dismiss him for a golden duck.
In his final over, Bishnoi trapped Luke Jongwe lbw and uprooted Blessing Muzarabani’s off-stump. Madande hit four boundaries in a late cameo of 29 not out off 23 balls, including three in the final over off Avesh, to take Zimbabwe to 115.
With inputs from IANS.
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