India won its 1st T-20 match against Zimbabwe quite easily. At Harare.
The Indian Cricket team, currently touring Zimbabwe, has won the ODI (One Day International) Series at 4-0. In the second phase, it is playing 2 T-20 matches.
The 1st T-20 match was played in Harare yesterday (Thursday, 17thJuly).
Opening bowler Sandeep Sharma was included in the Indian team for the 1st time. This is his debut in international cricket. Stuart Binny,. Manish Pandey, Kedhar Jadhav, and Akshar Patel also made their debut in T-20 Internationals.
Indian captain won the toss for the first time in this tour and elected to bat. Murtali Vijay & captain Rahane opened the Indian innings. Though the pitch appeared to be slow-paced, both the openers showed aggression right from the start.
Vijay dominated the bowlers. He hit a 6and 2 4’s in an over from the opening bowler Musarapani. Again, he hit 2 4’s in an over from Matsiva.
The openers gave a good start for India scoring 64 runs off 7 overs. Vijay was run out quite unnecessarily after socring 34 runs off 19 balls with 5 4’ws & one 6. Rahane was out after scoring 37 runs off 32 balls with 2 4’s. The scoring rate came down a bit.
In the middle-order, wicket-keeper batsman played steadily but slowly. He scored 39 runs off 35 balls with 2 4’s.
Though lower order batsmewnt did not shine, India scored 178 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs.
It can be commented that this sizable score of India was mainly with the help of Zimbabwe bowlers who gave many extras as 25 runs including 13 wides.
Zimbabwe started their innings with a target of 179 off 20 overs.
Their batsmen could not sustain the Indian bowling attack . They lost their wickets facing the spin bowlers Akshar Patel & Harbhajkan Singh and scored slowly. No interest was eft in the match. The last batsmen scored 25 runs with 2 6’s & 2 4’s in the last 2overs. This was the onl;y consolation for the home team.
Zimbabwe could score only 124 runs for 7 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. India won the match easily by 54 runs.
Akshar patel took 3 wickets/ Harbhajan Singh took 2 wickets. Akshar patel was declared ‘Man of the Match’.
Thus, I(ndia took thelead of 1-0 in the 2 match T-230 series.
The 2nd & final T-20 match is scheduled to be played tomorrow (Sunday, 19th July) at the same place, Harare.
Scoreboard
India
Rajane c Masakatza b Chrimer 35
Vijay (run out) 35
Utahappa (not out) 39
Manish Pandey c Sikander b Mobu 19
Kedhar Jadhav c Masakatza b Mobu 9
Stuart Binny c Chrimer b Mobu 11
Harbhajan Singh (not out) 8
Extras 25
Total in 20 overs: 178 for the loss of 5 wickets
Fall of wickets: 1-62, 2-82, 3-127, 4-150, 5-166
Bowling figures
Utseya 4-0-30-0
Chris Mobu 4-0-33-3
Musarapani 3-0-36-0
Matsiva 4-0-46-0
Chrimer 4-1-20-1
Sikandar raza 1-0-2-0
Zimbabwe
Masakadza c Jadhav b Akshar 28
Sibaba c Pandey b Harbhajan 23
Coventry c Rahane b Harbhajan 10
Chigmbura b Akshar 1
Saikandar raza b Akshar 10
Craig Ervin (run out) 2
Chrimer b Mohit Sharma 9
Utseya (not out) 13
Matsiva (not out) 14
Extras 14
Ttoal 124 runs for the loss of 7 wickets off 20 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-55, 2-64, 3-66, 4-68, 5-82, 6-90, 7-98
Bowling figures
Bhuvanesh Kumar 4-0-22-0
Sandeep Sharma 3-0-34-0
Mohit Sharma 3-0-8-1
Akshar Patel 4-0-17-3
HArbhajan Singh 4-0-29-2
Stuart Binny 2-0-8-0
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