Cricket: Zimbabwe stun India by two runs in T20 thriller

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Cricket: Zimbabwe stun India by two runs in T20 thriller
Zimbabwe cricketers celebrate their win over India in the T20 match.

Published: Sat 18 Jun 2016, 10:22 PM

Last updated: Sun 19 Jun 2016, 12:25 AM

Zimbabwe rose from the ashes of an embarrassing one-day series whitewash at the hands of India to shock the tourists by two runs in a thrilling Twenty20 international at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.
In a game that went down to the final delivery, Elton Chigumbura's unbeaten 54 ultimately made the difference as Zimbabwe took a one-nil lead in the three-match series.
Despite fielding five debutants in the format, India went into the fixture as favourites because of their experience in the IPL, only to come away chastened.
"It's a levelling experience, by which I mean that you need to give a lot of respect to cricket irrespective of the opposition," captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said.
"You can't play with your reputation - what's important is how well you execute and I felt we were way off today in both the bowling department and in the batting.
"At the same time credit goes to Zimbabwe because they made the most of that opportunity - they batted well and bowled the right line."
Zimbabwe's batting had been dismal in the ODIs, when they failed to score more than 168, but on Saturday they appeared to rediscover their joy for the game as they posted 170 for six.
Hamilton Masakadza provided a positive start at the top of the order with 25 from 15 balls, while Malcolm Waller took the game to India with his 30. A familiar collapse looked to be on the cards when Waller failed to pick Yuzvendra Chahal's googly and Sikandar Raza Butt was run out for 20, but Chigumbura found form to spark fireworks at the end, hitting seven sixes in his 26-ball knock.The all-rounder's innings represented a dramatic turnaround after he had registered back-to-back golden ducks in the final two ODIs, which Zimbabwe lost heavily.
"After what happened in the one-day series, as a team it was time to redeem ourselves," said Chigumbura.
"We knew that if we played as a team and all contributed, the chances were that we would have a chance of winning the game."


By AFP

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