India are teaching Zimbabwe how to play T20 cricket. After a shock loss in the first match of the series, they won the next one by 100 runs. On Wednesday in the third game, the victory margin was a more moderate 23 runs, although the outcome was never in doubt. Two more matches remain in the series.
The Indian XI was strengthened by the inclusion of three players who were part of the T20 World Cup-winning squad. In came Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube. It meant a harsh decision like dropping Abhishek Sharma to No. 3. He had made 100 off 47 balls in the previous match. But that’s what international cricket means at times.
Jaiswal was the catalyst in a stormy Indian start, which saw 41 runs coming off the first three overs. There were periods of go-slow as well, which resulted in a total of 182. It was a big enough tally on a pitch not the best for batting. Shubman Gill (66 off 49), Ruturaj Gaikwad (49 off 28) and Jaiswal (36 off 27) were the principal contributors. Zimbabwe’s catching and fielding were poor once again.
Gill was an early benefactor of those fielding lapses and after two sedate outings, imposed himself on the attack. It was not the most fluent knock he has played, but effective nonetheless. The eventual strike-rate was satisfactory, considering the stop-slow nature of the surface at Harare Sports Club. Gaikwad was very much the commander, as he bossed the home-team bowlers.
One has to mention the bowling efforts of Blessing Muzarabani and Sikandar Raza. Muzarabani was a towering presence once again and troubled the Indians with his pace and length. He forced the batters into awkward positions and returned impressive figures of two for 25. Raza, the skipper, confused the batters with his spin variations to bag two for 24.
The Indian bowlers gave Zimbabwe no whiff of a chance. It was a weakened attack, with four specialist bowlers, which was necessary to accommodate the three World Cup-winning players. But they wasted no time in putting the batters under pressure. Wickets in the second, third and fourth overs pushed Zimbabwe to a point of no return early on in the innings.
Washington Sundar capped off the bowling effort with figures of three for 15. It was a comprehensive performance and India outplayed Zimbabwe in all the departments of the game. The last two fixtures will be good match practice and experience for the Men in Blue trying to rebuild the T20 set-up after the retirements of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja.
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