Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed took 2-32 in a collective bowling show as India kept Zimbabwe to 152/7 in the fourth T20I at the Harare Sports Club here on Saturday. Tushar Deshpande, Washington Sundar, Abhishek Sharma, and Shivam Dube provided decent support to Khaleel by taking a wicket each.
For Zimbabwe, Tadiwanashe Marumani and Wesley Madhevere put up a 63-run opening stand. But the hosts lost their way after the duo fell in quick succession. Captain Sikandar Raza stepped up to take Zimbabwe past 150 with a 28-ball 46.
His quick-fire knock was laced with two fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 164.29, though his dismissal at the fag-end cost Zimbabwe around 10-15 runs. Pushed into batting first, Zimbabwe were off to a decent start as Madhevere and Marumani hit seven boundaries between themselves in a 63-run opening partnership.
Marumani had luck on his side when Dube dropped a catch at mid-on in the third over, as Zimbabwe, for the first time in the series, didn’t lose a wicket in the Power-play. India finally got a breakthrough in the ninth over when Marumani mistimed the pull to mid-wicket, giving Abhishek his first wicket in T20Is. In the next over, Madhevere fell after top-edge on pull was grabbed by deep square leg off Dube.
Raza injected some momentum in the innings by hitting a boundary each off Dube and Abhishek, while becoming the first Zimbabwean batter to score 2000 men’s T20I runs. But wickets continued to fall for Zimbabwe as Brian Bennett uppishly cut to cover off Washington and Johnathan Campbell was run out by a direct hit from Ravi Bishnoi at the non-striker’s end.
Raza continued to shine by slog-sweeping Washington for six, followed by freely swinging his arms against Khaleel to take a four (off a free-hit) and six respectively in an 18-run over. But debutant pacer Deshpande picked his first international wicket when he had Raza going for another big shot, but gave a skier to cover.
Dion Myers went too early on his flick off a slower ball from Khaleel and got a leading edge was snapped up by the pacer, who struck again on the final ball of the innings by having Clive Madande pull straight to deep mid-wicket.
Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 152/7 in 20 overs (Sikandar Raza 46, Tadiwanashe Marumani; Khaleel Ahmed 2-32, Shivam Dube 1-11) against India