India vs Zimbabwe 1st T20 match 2024: Zimbabwe has pulled off a major upset against India, who were considered the underdogs in this match. India were unable to score the target of 116 runs and loses by 13 runs. With this win against India, Zimbabwe takes a 1-0 lead in the first of the five-match T20I series at Harare Sports Club in Harare on Saturday.
This defeat is likely to leave the young Indian team feeling quite disheartened. In the earlier stages, India’s performance was led by Bishnoi’s 4 wickets haul, who managed to limit Zimbabwe to 115/9.
With Zimbabwe trailing by 9 runs, Madande and Chatara put on a 25-run partnership for the final wicket, with Madande scoring all the runs. These runs scored by Madande in the final moments turned out to be the deciding factor. However, India had taken a gamble on scoring these runs.
The match began poorly, and the Indian players will likely reflect on their batting choices. The newcomers Sharma and Parag did not make an impact, while Gaikwad had a standout performance. Rinku was dismissed, all within the powerplay.
With four wickets down at the start, India was in a constant race to catch up. Gill performed well initially but was undone by Raza. The situation only worsened as the run rate increased and India continued to lose wickets.
The match hinged on Washington Sundar’s attempt to rescue India, but with only 30 runs needed off the last three overs and only one wicket remaining, it was an impossible task for the inexperienced Indian team.
Young Indian Sides
Zimbabwe has beaten India for the first time in T20 internationals this year. Indeed, this isn’t India’s primary team, but the players present are highly skilled and have a lot of experience in T20 cricket, so they might feel disappointed with their performance.
However, this young Indian team have another match scheduled for less than 24 hours later, giving them an opportunity to correct their mistakes.
Match Summary
After the first T20 match between India vs Zimbabwe, Sikandar Raza was awarded as the player of the for his outstanding performance in the match, where he conceded only 25 runs and taken 3 wickets in his 4 overs spell.
He has also played a handy knock of 17 runs in 19 balls, which came out to a deciding factor in the last 2 overs of the match.
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Sikandar Raza’s statement after the match
Sikandar Raza stated: “Feel really happy about the win. Need to take one game at a time. The job is not done, series is not over. World champions play like world champions so we need to be ready for the next game. This isn’t a wicket where you get bowled out for 115. Credit to the bowlers of both sides. Clearly an indication we need to up our skills. I said I don’t care about the result as long as we could be true to the crowd and changing room, we had our plans, we stuck to it and we backed our guys. Our catching and ground fielding was amazing but we did make some errors, shows there’s room for improvement. We knew the fans would lift us up and give us energy, credit to them, it helped us”.