Zimbabwe halted India’s T20 World Cup victory celebrations by causing a major upset in the first T20I at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday. Exactly a week after India’s T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados, Zimbabwe, who had failed to qualify for the ICC event at the USA and the West Indies, brought the champions to their knees before a noisy home crowd.
The Shubman Gill-led young Indian side, bereft of any member from the World Cup-winning squad, succumbed to a 13-run defeat against a jubilant Zimbabwe under new captain Sikandar Raza.
This was India’s first defeat this year after going unbeaten for 12 straight games. This was also only the third time India lost to Zimbabwe in the shortest format. Their last defeat was eight years ago at the same venue.
Chasing 116 to win, India folded for 102 in 19.5 overs.
Without Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya, the young batters looked woefully short of match practice. Only captain Shubman Gill and all-rounder Washington Sundar provided some resistance, while the rest fell like nine pins.
Debutant Abhishek Sharma was out for a four-ball duck. He was one of the four Indian batters, failing to find an answer to the spongy bounce of the fresh Harare pitch.
After facing three dot balls on the trot, Abhishek tried to pull off-spinner Brian Bennett’s delivery for a six, but the extra bounce brought about his downfall. He found the only man outside the inner ring on the on-side.
Ruturaj Gaikwad was the next to go. Blessing Muzarabani got one to slightly move away from a length and Gaikwad just left his bat hanging only to get an outside edge to first slip.
India’s problems multiplied when another debutant, Riyan Parag (2), was caught at mid-off to become Tendai Chatara’s first victim. Rinku Singh, who was one of India’s World Cup reserves, played another reckless shot in the same over to take the long walk back for a two-ball duck. India were 22/4 in 5 overs and under serious pressure.
Gill and Dhruv Jurel, also on debut, dug deep to stem the flow of wickets for a brief period but just when it was looking like India’s chase was back on track, the keeper-batter could not control the cover drive and provided a simple catch to short cover. India lost half their side for only 43.
Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza was instrumental in the match-changing event in the next over. He deceived his counterpart Shubman Gill with a floated in-swinger. Gill played all around it and lost his off-stump. With Gill gone for 31, with 55 runs still to win, it was always going to be an uphill task for an Indian side that had a long tail.
Avesh Khan (16, 12b) and Washington Sundar (27, 34b) added 23 runs for the eighth wicket to take India to 84 but a full-blooded smash off a Masakadza full-toss was accepted by Raza at long-off.
At 84 for eight and then at 86 for nine, the fight was well and truly over.
India needed 16 runs off the last over and despite Washington being there, they could only manage just two runs as Zimbabwe celebrated a famous win with all fervour.
Earlier, Ravi Bishnoi (4/13) received adequate support from off-spinner Washington Sundar (2/11) as Zimbabwe struggled to stitch any meaningful partnership after they were invited to bat on a pitch that offered a good amount of bounce and carry.
However, Zimbabwe made a rather brisk start to their innings, reaching 40 for two in the Power Play segment even though their batters were not always convincing.
After the early dismissal of Innocent Kaia, who dragged a Mukesh Kumar delivery onto his stumps, Wessly Madhevere (21, 22b) and Brian Bennett (22, 15b) added 34 runs in quick time.
The highlight of their alliance was the fifth over in which they plundered 17 runs off left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed.
Bennett hammered him for two successive boundaries as Zimbabwe seemed to have recovered from the early loss of Kaia.
But the ouster of Bennett by Bishnoi in the sixth over changed the complexion of Zimbabwe’s innings. Bennett could not read Bishnoi’s googly, which also carried three more Zimbabwe batters to their doom later — Madhevere, Blessing Muzarabani and Luke Jongwe.
They crawled to 74 for three from there, courtesy the patience of skipper Sikandar Raza (17, 19b) but lost their way from that point, losing six wickets for 41 runs.
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