Harare. Thanks to the blazing knock of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (93 not out) and captain Shubman Gill (58 not out), India defeated Zimbabwe by 10 wickets in the fourth T20 International on Saturday and took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. There was an unbroken partnership of 156 runs for the first wicket between the two. This is the second time that India has won by a margin of 10 wickets over Zimbabwe. Earlier in 2016, India defeated the host team by 10 wickets in Harare itself.
India won the toss and decided to bowl first. Part-time bowlers Shivam Dubey and Abhishek Sharma performed brilliantly and restricted Zimbabwe to 152 runs for seven wickets. In response, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill displayed phenomenal batting and scored 156 runs in just 15.2 overs to give India victory. Jaiswal played an unbeaten innings of 93 runs in 53 balls and hit shots all around the field. He hit 13 fours and two sixes in his explosive innings. Jaiswal did not get a chance to play in the T20 World Cup. On the other hand, Shubman Gill also supported Jaiswal a lot.
Diya hit six fours and two towering sixes during his unbeaten innings of 58 runs.
After the victory, captain Shubman Gill said, ‘Achieving the target without losing a wicket is something we discuss. We wanted to do this feat in the first T20 match but could not. It felt good when it became possible today but the work is not done yet. We have to play one more match. This is a great team. I am hopeful that we will play matches in the future with the same team.’
Yashasvi Jaiswal said, ‘Today I enjoyed batting a lot. The wicket was definitely very good. I had a strategy in mind for every bowler. When the ball was new, it was coming easily but when it got old, it became a bit slow. I changed my game after understanding the circumstances. I wanted to stay on the pitch till the end.’
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 13, 2024, 22:01 IST