Harare: After losing the first match of the 5-match T20I series against Zimbabwe, India needed to come back stronger otherwise the might’ve even ended up losing the series and that is exactly what they did. The Men in Blue won the toss and decided to bat first at the Harare Sports Club.
After losing Shubman Gill early, Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad formed an incredible partnership that took India’s score over the 100-run mark. Both the batsmen played beautiful shots to dominate on the same pitch where they were struggling yesterday. Abhishek who was only playing his second T20I went on to score his maiden ton for India on just 46 balls. It was an incredible knock which featured 7 boundaries and 8 sixes.
After Abhishek lost his wicket to Wellington Masakadza, Rinku Singh came in to bat. He too formed a great partnership with Gaikwad who completed his half-century. Both the batsmen also played great knocks to take India to a humongous total of 234/2 after 20 overs. Gaikwad remained unbeaten on 77 while Rinku remained unbeaten on 48. The Men in Blue scored 160 runs in the final 10 overs of their innings which is the highest score ever in the last 10 overs in a T20I innings.
In reply, the Zimbabwean batsmen kept on losing wickets on regular intervals. The likes of Wessly Madhevere, Brian Bennett and Luke Jongwe played some good cameos, but the Indian bowlers proved to be too good for them on the day as they bowled out Zimbabwe for only 134 runs to win the match by 100 runs and level the series with 1 victory each for both the sides. Avesh Khan was the star in bowling as he took 3 scalps and only gave away 15 runs. Mukesh Kumar and Ravi Bishnoi also contributed by taking 3 and 2 wickets respectively.
The third match of the series will also be played at the Harare Sports Club on Wednesday, July 10.
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