India defeated Zimbabwe by 72 runs in the Super 8 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday. The win keeps India in the race for the semi-finals as they face West Indies in the final game of the Super 8 stage at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
After this big win, India need just one more win against West Indies in their final Super 8 match to qualify for the semi-finals. Today West Indies had to face defeat against South Africa. After one win and one loss, both India and West Indies have the same points. It is going to be a virtual quarter final for both the countries.
India will have to win its last match against West Indies at any cost.
India will be hoping that South Africa win their last game against Zimbabwe and they qualify as the first team from Group 1. However, the result of that game will not have much impact on India, as their run rate is lower than the Proteas. So even if the Proteas lose, they will not be relegated to second place.
Talking about the match, India were invited to bat first, and they smashed Zimbabwe’s bowlers all over the park, scoring 256/4 in 20 overs, the highest T20 World Cup total for this edition and the second highest in T20 World Cup history.
Abhishek Sharma is finally back in form
Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma laid the foundation of the total score made by the team. India made two changes in the form of Samson and Akshar Patel. Samson scored 24 off 15 and gave a good start to the Men in Blue as they scored 48 runs for the first wicket, which was also the highest opening score for India in this edition of the T20 World Cup.
Abhishek also scored his first half-century in this competition and he may have found form ahead of the crucial clash against the Windies. He scored 55 runs in 30 balls. Ishan Kishan and captain Suryakumar Yadav played important innings in the middle overs and did not allow the run rate to drop. The former scored 38 off 24 and SKY scored 33 off 14.
Hardik Pandya and Tilak Verma gave India the finish they should have got. Both scored 55 runs in the last three overs of the game. Hardik scored 50 off 23 balls and Tilak, who was struggling to score quickly in the edition, scored 44 off 16 balls with the score at 275.00 and a target of 257.
Zimbabwe has never been seen chasing such a big target
Zimbabwe were looking good while chasing the target, but they did not have the strength to chase such a big target. They continued to attack at a good pace, but ultimately failed to chase. After two consecutive defeats, they are now out of the race for the semi-finals.
How was his tournament? Brian Bennett scored his career-high score of 97 runs off 59 balls with the help of eight fours and six sixes. The opening batsman remained unbeaten till the end of the innings. Arshdeep Singh performed brilliantly in bowling and took 3 wickets for 24 runs, taking their score to 184/6.
Also read: Former Indian captain pointed out a big weakness in Sanju Samson’s batting against Zimbabwe.