Zimbabwe beat India in maiden T20 victory

Sport360 staff 19:30 19/07/2015
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  • Chamu Chibhabha's 51-ball 67 was crucial for Zimbabwe.

    Zimbabwe squared their two-match Twenty20 series against India with a 10-run win in Harare.

    India had coasted to a 54-run victory in the opening match on Friday but their batting deserted them this time as they fell short of Zimbabwe’s 145 for seven.

    — Misbah Ul Haq (@MisbahUlHaq51) July 19, 2015

    Ajinkya Rahane was run out for four off the third ball of the innings but the foundations for victory appeared to be built by a second-wicket stand between Murali Vijay and Robin Uthappa.

    The pair put on 53 in 32 balls before Graeme Cremmer bowled Vijay and India were wobbling three balls later when the leg-spinner dismissed Manish Pandey lbw for nought.

    And when Uthappa fell for a 25-ball 42 in the next over, driving the ball back to off-spinner Sean Williams, and Kedar Jadhav (five) was run out as panic set in India were suddenly 69 for five and very much second favourites.

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    Stuart Binny (24) and Sanju Samson (19) repaired the innings but Cremer (three for 18) broke their partnership of sixth-wicket partnership and a target of 41 from the final five overs proved too much as India lost wickets at regular intervals.

    Taurai Muzarabani (one for 23) and Chris Mpofu (one for 26) both struck at the death and Bhuvneshwar Kumar became the third run-out victim as India finished on 135 for nine.

    Zimbabwe’s total was based around the efforts of opening batsman Chamu Chibhabha who provided nearly half of his side’s runs with a T20 international best of 67 from 51 balls.

    The hosts lost Hamilton Masakadza (19) and captain Sikandar Raza (eight) to Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Sharma but they were handily placed in the 11th over at 85 for two.

    But Williams was caught and bowled by Amar Patel for 17 and the innings never really kicked on as Charles Coventry (four), Craig Ervine (seven) and and Prosper Utseya (one) failed to build on Chibhabha’s good work.

    Chibhabha finally fell in the penultimate over when he was beaten by an in-swinging yorker from Kumar (two for 26) but the batsman was named man-of-the-match for an excellent contribution which also included a superb match-turning catch to remove the dangerous Binny.

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