Zimbabwe Vs India 1st T20I review :- Chigumbura Shines as Zimbabwe beat India in the first T20I
After a thrilling over from Neville Madziva Zimbabwe finally could manage to win the first match of T20I series against India. India needed 8 runs in the last over with Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the middle, but Madziva hold his nerve and restricted the Indian batsmen with his controlled line and lengths. Eventually Zimbabwe won the match by 2 runs and lead the 3-match T20I series 1-0.
After winning the toss, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni invited the home captain to bat first. After putting into bat first, both the Zimbabwean openers got the hosts to a decent start. But once again their openers could not convert their starts in to big scores as both were dismissed in 20s.Even four of their top five batsmen could not convert their starts to a big score. Richmond Mutumbami was retired hurt in the 6th over due to a nasty blow after Jaidev Unadkat’s length delivery around his abdomen.After that, Elton Chigumbura came into the crease and he took the Indian Bowlers and played his shots all around the ground .In the death over, Chigumbura stunned Indian bowlers with his brilliant knock of unbeaten 54 off 26 balls with 7 maximum in his inning. Eventually Zimbabwe put 170 runs on the board with the loss of 6 wicket which was probably a par score as Mahendra Singh Dhoni had reckoned that 150 runs is a par score in this wicket.
First time in the tour, Indian openers were under pressure as they were chasing a challenging total of 171 runs. On the other hand, Zimbabwean bowler Donald Tiripano started with an extra spring to his step and dismissed KL Rahul in his first ball of the over. After the damage done, Mandeep Singh and Ambati Rayudu put 44 runs stand for the second wicket and rebuilt the innings. But both the batsmen were picked up by Chibhabha. After that Manish Pandey came into action and played some outstanding shots before he got out in the 18th over. Axar Patel also got some boundaries and played a handy knock of 18 runs in just 9 balls with 2 maximum and a four before he got out in the final over. Eventually India fell 2 runs short from their victory after the brilliant final over of Neville Madziva. As expected Elton Chigumbura was adjudged Man Of The Match for his brilliant 54* off 26 balls.
Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 170/6 (Chigumbura 54* off 26 balls, Bumrah 2/24)
India 168/6 (Pandey 48 off 35 balls, Chibhabha 2/13)