India 156 for 0 (Jaiswal 93*, Gill 58*) bat Zimbabwe 152 for 7 (Raza 46, Marumani 32, Khaleel 2-32, Dube 1-11) for ten wickets
Zimbabwe’s highly assured batting was not enough to challenge India’s young IPL players. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill made light work of the 153-run target, romping home in just 15.2 overs in a thrilling display of target-hitting of the kind we haven’t seen in the series so far.
Where Zimbabwe hit 10 fours in their 20 overs, Jaiswal and Gill hit as many in their first four overs taking 10 wickets to give India a 3-1 win with one match to play. on Sunday.
India’s fifth team will shine after Zimbabwe’s solid foundation
In the third over, Marumani was dismissed by Shivam Dube at mid-on for 3. He also benefited from an overturn that reached the boundary in the same over, and Marumani appeared to change gears after he had reversed following debutant Tushar Deshpande. , who conceded 21 in his first two overs. Gill quickly turned around to turn the ball around on the powerplay and they were able to get the score back; finally an attempt to up the ante against India’s pace bowlers, who needed to fill the middle of the fifth bowler, got Marumani.
Off Abhishek Sharma’s fourth ball, he looked to pull it and ended up hitting it towards the long-on boundary where Rinku Singh was waiting at deep midwicket. This allowed Gill to bowl Dube on the other side with the aim of getting the fifth batsman’s quota out of the way, but he struck too – in his first over, he bowled another, Madhevere, at a short ball. Rinku to deep square leg.
Abhishek could have got the second wicket in T20Is, but Ruturaj Gaikwad put a dollop at another cover to relieve Brian Bennett. The missed opportunity did not cost India much.
Raza saved Zimbabwe
Raza needed to save Zimbabwe as they lost 4 for 33 after the match. Having been guilty of running out Jonathan Campbell, Raza’s industry kept the runs going until he changed the game with five overs left.
On 21 17 then, he launched Washington Sundar over deep midwicket for a 90-metre six, then followed Khaleel Ahmed in his next over, hitting a four and a six. The 16th and 17th overs produced 31 as Zimbabwe advanced to 160. That they fell short was eight thanks to two overs from Deshpande, who dismissed Raza for his first international wicket, and Khaleel. Zimbabwe has been successful in competing, if not winning games, it is complete.
Jaiswal and Gill are happy
India’s chase began when Jaiswal hit three fours off left-arm seamer Richard Ngavara in the first over. Jaiswal was in no mood to stop there, hitting Tendai Chatara for another four in his first over, his third of the innings. The seamers kept giving him width and he kept smashing them at point, alternating between hitting them down and playing bloody wounds. India put up fifty in just 3.5 overs with Jaiswal making 39.
Jaiswal got his half-century in 29 balls, then opened the day’s only shot when he sent Raza inside out over extra cover. Having been beaten in flight, he quickly got used to picking him up on the line and bisecting the narrow gap between deep cover and long-on.
Gill then took over, helping himself to Faraz Akram’s soft challenges in a fine display of top-scoring. Gill’s second consecutive century, from 35 balls, was soft compared to Jaiswal’s but effective.
With the game racing towards the finish line, the only point of interest was if Jaiswal could get the 17 runs out of the remaining 18 runs required to reach the big time. He could not; he ended up not out on 93, bringing out his full range in a thrilling display that showed the kind of intent that won India the T20 World Cup last month after 17 years.
Shashank Kishore is senior junior editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source link
