Watch cricket video highlights of India tour of Zimbabwe 2024 2nd Twenty/20 between Zimbabwe vs India. Venue of the match will be Harare.
India’s entry into the T20 cricket era started off badly on Saturday, but they bounced back nicely to complete the weekend with a significant victory led by their most forward-thinking player. Abhishek Sharma, who dominated the Indian Premier League 2024 with his brilliant, all-in exploits at the top of the order, gave cricket fans their first taste of his brilliance on Sunday by destroying Zimbabwe with a 46-ball century, which is tied for third-fastest by an Indian batsman in Twenty20 Internationals.
India’s second-highest T20I score away from home, 234 for 2, was the result of that effort, and Zimbabwe had to mount their most successful chase as they had only once successfully chased down a target above 199. They never came close, as India’s overwhelmingly better bowling arsenal used a two-paced pitch to defend a well-above-average score. The match was aptly summed up by the winning margin of precisely 100 runs.
Brian Bennett, who bowled first for Zimbabwe on Saturday, used his offspin to dismiss Abhishek for a duck in the opening over of play against the left-hand rookie from India. The second Twenty20 International began with the same matchup as India chose to bat. Abhishek scored his first international wicket on the first legitimate ball he faced, hitting it for six. It was nothing, but it was also a portent of things to come. While it may not always be of a higher caliber than the IPL, international cricket might differ greatly from it. The Harare pitch had an early seam and some spongy bounce, which Zimbabwe’s attack made good use of to limit India to 36 for 1 during the powerplay.
Shubman Gill was Zimbabwe’s strongest bowler early on, unsettling Ruturaj Gaikwad in particular with his lift and movement in the corridor. He perished in the second over, chipping Blessing Muzarabani straight to mid-on. Abhishek too needed some time to adjust to the circumstances; at one point, he was scoring 27 runs off just 23 balls. Then he attempted to clear his front leg and miscued it high in the air over the mid-off zone, hitting Luke Jongwe’s nibbly medium-pace over the top. Wellington Masakadza managed to go beneath it and subdue it.
Abhishek was unstoppable after that, smashing 72 runs in his final 23 balls at the crease with five fours and seven sixes. The conditions suddenly stopped bothering him. He was pulling with tremendous force and rocked back to somewhat short balls. He was getting up and gracefully lifting his arms over the blankets. All of a sudden, a mild Zimbabwean assault appeared to be exactly what it was.
Another drop occurred when Abhishek was on 77 off 40, with Tendai Chatara sprinting to his right from long off and just getting the heel of his palm to a lofted drive from Sikandar Raza. Zimbabwe was under pressure, too, and Sai Sudharsan, making his Twenty20 International debut, was taking almost every ball on with all the batting might India had in the dugout. They had excluded left-arm quick Khaleel Ahmed and added an additional batsman. Even though his longest innings of the season lasted just 28 balls, Abhishek wasn’t concerned about getting out, which is why he had such an effect in the IPL. On this particular day, luck was on his side.
He left a few of bowlers with really noticeable bruises along the way. In the eleventh over, Dion Myers’ slow-medium went missing for 4, 6, 4, 6, 4, with the best hit being a massive pull that struck the ceiling over the leg-side boundary, raising Abhishek’s fifty. Subsequently, Masakadza, who was a fan of left-arm orthodoxy and regretted having dropped Abhishek, went for 6, 6, 6 in the 14th over, the last of which was a one-handed swipe over backward square leg that brought up Abhishek’s century, before a blunder off the following ball halted the onslaught.
Or not, since India was feeling very spirited just now and Zimbabwe still had six overs to bowl. Even after playing his first competitive match since the IPL, Gaikwad struggled with the weather and his lack of experience until his 38th ball, when he reached his fifty with a pulled four off Jongwe. In the subsequent over, the eighteenth, he completely destroyed Chatara, hitting him for three fours and a six to end undefeated on 77 off 47.
Rinku Singh, who was unlucky to miss India’s World Cup campaign despite having an average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.23 in 11 innings at the time the squad was named, was the major culprit behind the end-overs mayhem. Now that he was at No. 4, the ideal position for him to showcase his abilities, he was in his element. He hit a charging six off the sixth ball he faced and finished the innings with two fours off Jongwe, who finished with figures of 0 for 53 in four overs. Not what he could have expected on 27 when he made Abhishek make a mistake.
Zimbabwe’s only hope heading into their pursuit was the way India was putting up their attack. They were only using four front-line bowlers since they had chosen to bat one additional batter, so Abhishek and Riyan Parag, who bowl on a part-time basis, had to finish the final four overs. Abhishek, who plays a lot of variations with his standard left-arm orthodox in domestic cricket, saw how tough it can be to bowl in the powerplay during an international match when he let up 19 runs in the second over against Bennett, who was playing aggressively. In the following over, Bennett also got hold of Mukesh Kumar, hitting him for two enormous back-to-back sixes, one over square leg and the other down the ground, but he fell on the next ball.
After taking one wicket in the first over to bowl Kaia, who was innocent, over the gate, Mukesh claimed his second wicket with an in-ducker. A hallmark of Zimbabwe’s powerplay was that kind of seam movement mixed with erratic bounce. Thanks to Bennett’s aggressiveness, they managed to score 22 runs more than India during that phase, but they also lost four wickets to one for India. One of them, when an Avesh Khan bouncer skidded onto Sikandar Raza as he tried to hook, made it clear how difficult the circumstances remained: he had to fend off a catch off the glove to the keeper.
Following the powerplay, Zimbabwe’s innings collapsed even further, with Ravi Bishnoi appearing especially unhittable. Desperately sweeping and reverse-sweeping, Jonathan Campbell was unable to bat on five of his deliveries in a row before bottom-edging the sixth into his body. From the beginning of the chase till the 17th over, Wessly Madhevere batted and made 43 off 39 balls. With eight balls remaining, Zimbabwe was finally knocked out for 134, with three wickets each taken by Avesh and Mukesh and two for 11 from Bishnoi’s four overs.
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