Neville Madziva defended eight runs in the last over as Zimbabwe recorded one of their most famous victories over a fancied Indian side, a two-run win in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday to take 1-0 lead. These players were Rishi Dhawan, Jaydev Unadkat, KL Rahul, Mandeeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal. Against Zimbabwe today, it was Jaidev Unadkat and Rishi Dhawan who had that honour.
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After dishing out a 3-0 whitewash in the ODI series, the visitors have chose to test the bench strength and included five new faces in the playing XI for the first T20.
Pandey’s wicket in the 18th over put the match in balance, but Dhoni’s presence, and some lusty blows from Axar Patel shifted the match in India’s favour, but at the end it turned out to be Zimbabwe’s match.
Chibhabha then contributed with the ball as well, having Mandeep Singh caught for 31 and castling Ambati Rayudu for 19. India still needed 28 runs from 16 balls at this stage, as Patel joined his skipper.
Elton Chigumbura scored 54 off 26 balls to steer Zimbabwe to a competitive score of 170/6 in the first innings.
Jaydev Unadkat started the proceedings with his left-arm medium pace bowling. This was the second time Zimbabwe had beaten India in a T20I in five attempts. It was a pretty good start they got considering their performance in the recently concluded ODI series.
The Graeme Cremer-led side was no match to Team India’s new-look outfit under the leadership of MS Dhoni.
50 – No bowler has taken more wickets in T20 matches this year than Jasprit Bumrah.
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Watch the live stream of India vs Zimbabwe ODI here ( Ten Sports), here (nextGTv), live scores here (ESPN Cric Info), here (Cric Buzz) and live videos here (BCCI), here (ZimCricket). Both the second and third wickets were picked up by Chibhabha.
