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ICC T20 World Cup: Bats of stalwarts including Abhishek finally shined, Indian hopes come alive with big win over Zimbabwe

By Samira Vishwas

Chennai, 26 February. Opener Abhishek Sharma (55 runs, 30 balls, four sixes, four fours), who disappointed in the last few matches after returning from injury, finally returned to form. In this sequence, along with Abhishek, the bats of other batsmen also improved. The result was that Team India defeated Zimbabwe by a huge margin of 72 runs in a ‘do or die’ situation here on Thursday night and revived its hopes of entering the semi-finals from Super 8 Group 1 in the ICC T20 World Cup.

Pandya and Tilak also had stormy innings, India scored the second highest score.

Team India, forced to bat first at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, got the support of the stormy attacks of Hardik Pandya (50 not out, 23 balls, four sixes, two fours) and Tilak Verma (44 not out, 16 balls, four sixes, three fours) after the aggressive innings of the top four batsmen including Abhishek and the co-hosts scored a huge score of 256 runs for four wickets, which was The second highest score in T20 World Cup history, India’s own highest score and the highest score in the current edition. Was.

Zimbabwe’s opener Brian Bennett’s explosive effort went in vain

In response, opener Brian Bennett (97 not out, 59 balls, six sixes, eight fours) remained three runs away from the century. The explosive innings of his third wicket partnership of 72 runs with captain Sikandar Raza (31 runs, 21 balls, two sixes, two fours) proved to be insufficient and in front of Arshdeep Singh and his fellow bowlers, the Zimbabwe team reached only 184 runs for six wickets. Could.

South Africa in semi-finals with second consecutive win

With this one-sided win over India, South Africa (four points) secured a place in the semi-finals from Group One, which had boosted its hopes earlier in the day by thrashing West Indies by nine wickets with 23 balls remaining and achieving its second consecutive win.

India vs West Indies match now like a knockout

Now the match played on Sunday between India (two points), which was defeated by the Proteas in the first match, and West Indies (two points) has become like a knockout as the winning team of that match will become the second semi-finalist.

score card

Zimbabwe’s campaign, which was undefeated after surprising Australia and Sri Lanka in the league stage, ended with its second consecutive defeat in the Super 8. However, he is yet to meet South Africa.

Pandya and Tilak scored unbroken 84 runs in the last 31 balls.

Talking about Indian batting, ‘Player of the Match’ Pandya and Tilak Verma played an important role in taking the team’s score beyond 250 runs with an unbroken partnership of 84 runs in just 31 balls for the fifth wicket. Before this, Abhishek took command and during this time 80 runs had been scored in the powerplay of six overs.

Abhishek’s useful partnerships with Sanju and Ishaan, Surya also showed his hand

Abhishek gave India a solid platform by making a partnership of 48 runs for the first wicket with Sanju Samson (24 runs, 15 balls, two sixes, one four) and 72 runs for the second wicket with Ishan Kishan (38 runs, 24 balls, one six, four fours). Then captain Suryakumar Yadav (33 runs, 13 balls, two sixes, three fours) also made aggressive attacks.

Brian Bennett becomes Zimbabwe’s highest scorer in T20 World Cup history

If we look at the batting of Zimbabwe, who came to chase the difficult target, only Bennett was seen facing the Indian bowlers in the crease and Sikandar Raja was seen supporting them in the middle. Although Zimbabwe was disappointed in this sequence, Bennett emerged as Zimbabwe’s highest scorer in T20 World Cup history. In this sequence, he broke Raza’s previous record (82 runs). Apart from this, he also became the first Zimbabwean batsman to play his third consecutive innings of 50+ in the tournament.

South Africa’s might continues in Ahmedabad

On the other hand, in Ahmedabad, South Africa continued its exploits against West Indies after India. West Indies, forced to bat first at the Narendra Modi Stadium, after a difficult situation of 7-83, scored a challenging score of 176 runs for eight wickets with the efforts of Romario Shepherd (52 not out, 37 balls, four sixes, three fours) and Jason Holder (49 runs, 31 balls, three sixes, four fours). But the Proteas scored 177 runs at the loss of just one wicket in 16.1 overs.

Markram made victory easy with explosive partnerships with de Kock and Rickelton.

South Africa’s explosive counter action was commanded by ‘Player of the Match’ captain Aiden Markram (82 not out, 46 balls, four sixes, seven fours). He added 95 runs in just 48 balls with Quinton de Kock (47 runs, 24 balls, four sixes, four fours). Then Ryan Rickelton (45 not out, 28 balls, two sixes, four fours) along with the captain ensured the team’s easy victory with an unbroken partnership of 82 runs in 50 balls.

friday match : : England vs New Zealand (Super 8 Group Two, Colombo, 7 pm).

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