New Delhi: India defeated Zimbabwe by 35 runs in the third and final T20I played at Harare Sports Club. With this win, the ‘Men in Blue’ won the 3-match series 3-0. Team India defeated the host team in a one-sided match, giving a strong performance with both bat and ball.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s innings of 81 runs
After losing the toss and opting to bat first, India did not have a good start. Abhishek Sharma was out after scoring just 2 runs. But after this Vaibhav Suryavanshi took over the innings. The young batsman played a brilliant inning of 81 runs while playing aggressively.
In the middle order, Ishan Kishan added 29 runs and Shreyas Iyer added 27 runs. Together they took the score beyond 190. Some quick runs were also scored in the last overs and India scored 192/5 in 20 overs. Brad Evans was the most successful bowler for Zimbabwe. He took 2 wickets. Sikandar Raza, Blessing Muzarabani and Wesley Madhevere got one wicket each.
The bowlers tightened their grip
Zimbabwe had a very bad start to chase the target of 193 runs. Opener Brian Bennett returned to the pavilion without opening the account. Ben Curran scored 20 runs in 19 balls but could not play a big innings. Dion Myers was also out after scoring 19 runs in 15 balls.
Indian bowlers took wickets continuously in the middle overs. The biggest shock came when Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza was also out without opening the account. Due to this the middle order of the host team completely disintegrated.
Wesley Madhevere played a struggling inning of 29 runs. But Ryan Burl fought the most for Zimbabwe. He scored 54 runs in 43 balls. However, due to continuous fall of wickets from the other end, his innings could not bring victory to the team.
Mayank Yadav and Yash Thakur shine
Mayank Yadav was the brightest in bowling for India. The young fast bowler took 3 wickets and destroyed Zimbabwe’s top order. Yash Thakur took 2 wickets. Ashok Sharma and Ravi Bishnoi also maintained the pressure by taking one wicket each. The result was that Zimbabwe team could score only 157/7 runs in 20 overs and lost the match by 35 runs.
India’s dominance in the series
With this win, India registered its third consecutive win in the series. In all three matches, Team India defeated Zimbabwe in both batting and bowling. Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s form, Mayank Yadav’s fast bowling and fielding agility were the biggest positives of the series.
The captain and coach said after the match that the purpose of giving opportunities to young players was to create bench strength. The clean sweep in Harare will prove to be a big morale booster for Team India for the preparations for the upcoming Asia Cup and World Cup.
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