India advances to semi-finals by defeating Zimbabwe in T20 World Cup 2026

India beats Zimbabwe, takes one step closer to semi-finals

New Delhi: In the Super-8 round of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, India defeated Zimbabwe by 72 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on 26 February. In this match, India gave Zimbabwe a target of 257 runs to win, but Zimbabwe could score only 184 runs for 6 wickets. With this win, India will now have to defeat West Indies to reach the semi-finals. This match between India and West Indies will be played in Kolkata on March 1. This victory already paved the way for South Africa to reach the semi-finals, while Zimbabwe was out of the race for the semi-finals.

zimbabwe innings

Zimbabwe had a slow but strong start. Brian Bennett and Tadivanashe Marumani scored 44 runs in 6.2 overs. Akshar Patel took the wicket of Marumani (20 runs). After this Varun Chakraborty dismissed Dion Myers for only 6 runs. After that there was a partnership of 72 runs between captain Sikandar Raza and Bennett. Raza tried to take his team forward by scoring 31 runs in 21 balls, but Arshdeep Singh dismissed him in the 17th over. Arshdeep weakened Zimbabwe’s position by dismissing Ryan Burl without opening the account and Tony Munyonga for 11 runs.

India’s excellent batting

After losing the toss and batting first, India scored a huge score of 256 runs for 4 wickets, which is the highest score by any team in this World Cup. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma added 48 runs for the first wicket. Sanju scored 24 runs, while Ishan Kishan and Abhishek together made a partnership of 72 runs. Abhishek played an inning of 55 runs in 30 balls, which included 4 sixes and 4 fours. Captain Suryakumar Yadav quickly changed the course of the game by scoring 33 runs in 13 balls. Hardik Pandya and Tilak Verma made an unbeaten 84-run partnership to put India in a strong position. Hardik scored 50 runs in 23 balls and Tilak scored 44 runs in 16 balls in the end to take India to a huge score.

Change in playing 11

In this match, both the teams made changes in their playing 11. Sanju Samson and Akshar Patel entered the team in place of Rinku Singh and Washington Sundar. Whereas in Zimbabwe, Tinotendo Maposa was included in place of Graeme Cremer.

Information about previous matches of India vs Zimbabwe

This is not the first clash between India and Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup. Earlier also, these two teams had faced each other in 2022, in which India had won by 71 runs due to the strong innings of Suryakumar Yadav. There have been a total of 13 T20 International matches between India and Zimbabwe, in which India has won 10 matches.

India’s performance in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

India has impressed everyone with its strong performance in this World Cup so far. The pitch of Chennai is also proving to be favorable for the batsmen, in which the fast bowlers have to face challenges.