The 44th match of T20 World Cup 2026 was played between West Indies and Zimbabwe. This was the second match of Group-1 of Super-8, which took place on 23 February at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. In this match, West Indies batted first and made a huge score against Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe team could not survive under the pressure of such a big target and West Indies won the match by a huge margin of 107 runs. Team India’s tension has increased due to this huge defeat of Zimbabwe, because the net run rate of the top two teams of this group has become very strong.
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Let us tell you that the Indian team had lost its first Super 8 match in the T20 World Cup 2026 to South Africa by a huge margin. Due to this, the net run rate of Team India had reduced significantly. South Africa won this match against India by 76 runs. Since then there is a lot of debate going on whether the Indian team will reach the semi-finals.
West Indies innings
Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to bowl first. West Indies, who came to bat first, did not have a very good start, but within some time the batsmen took over the innings. In the first 12 overs, the team had scored 131 runs after losing 2 wickets. After this, West Indies scored runs rapidly in the last 8 overs. During this period, 4 wickets definitely fell, but the team added 123 runs. Due to this strong batting, West Indies scored 254 runs for 6 wickets in 20 overs and set a target like a mountain in front of Zimbabwe.
For West Indies, Shimron Hetmyer scored the highest score of 85 runs, while Rovman Powell scored 59 runs. For Zimbabwe, Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarawa took two wickets each, while Brad Evans and Graeme Cremer took one wicket each.
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zimbabwe innings
Zimbabwe had a bad start while chasing the target and the team kept losing wickets continuously. Zimbabwe had scored 101 runs after losing 6 wickets in the first 12 overs. After this the team could not recover and could add only 46 runs after losing 4 wickets in the next 6 overs. Ultimately Zimbabwe was all out for 147 runs in 17.4 overs. In this way West Indies won the match easily by 107 runs.
Brad Evans batted fast and scored 43 runs before the last wicket fell and was the highest scorer for Zimbabwe. Apart from him, Dion Myers played an inning of 28 runs. Whereas Gudakesh Moti was most successful in West Indies bowling and took 4 wickets. Akeal Hossein got 3 wickets, Matthew Ford took 2 wickets, while Jason Holder dismissed 1 batsman.
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Indian team’s tension increased
So far, all four teams have played one match each in Group-1 of Super-8. West Indies, after winning its first match, has taken the first place with a net run rate of +5.350. South Africa is also in second place with +3.800 net run rate after winning 1 match. On the other hand, Indian team lost its first match, hence is at third place with -3.800 net run rate. Zimbabwe is also in fourth place with a net run rate of -5.350 after losing the first match.
The race for the semi-finals in Super-8 Group-1 is still open. Now to qualify for the semi-finals, India will have to win both its remaining matches against Zimbabwe and West Indies at any cost, so that it can get 4 points. Along with this, it is also important to keep the run rate high, because South Africa and West Indies have already won by big margins. If India wins both the matches and in the other matches either South Africa or West Indies loses one match, then on the basis of better net run rate, India can reach the top-2 and make it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2026.
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