Against Zimbabwe in Chennai, it was a day where everything went according to plan for India. They had to just win their game against Zimbabwe to get one step closer to the semi-finals. Zimbabwe is a team that is not ready for as big a match as it was against India. Indian boys did the needful at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Winning this game by 72 runs meant the Indian campaign is back on track and setting up a direct quarterfinal against the West Indies on Sunday.
It was a great atmosphere at Chepauk as Abhishek Sharma came back to form with a 30-ball 55 knock. The new CSK Signing, Sanju Samson, also added 24 runs and entertained the Chennai crowd. Apart from these two, the entire middle order also got to bat and hit some pretty great shots on a good batting surface.
Zimbabwe did make things easier for India by choosing to bowl after winning the toss and starting with some ordinary bowling. Dropping catches at crucial junctures did not help their cause. They were the perfect team India would have liked to play at this stage of the tournament.
In the death overs, Zimbabwe bowlers kept delivering easy bowls in search of yorkers. Due to this, India hit them for 17 sixes in the match. This has also led India to make their highest total in a T20 World Cup.
The total was beyond the reach of Zimbabwe, and they kind of knew it. They didn’t look interested in scaling this total; they chose to bat 20 overs. Brian Bennett played one hell of an innings and made 97 off just 54 balls. It was a great experience for Zimbabwe’s batters to play against a quality bowling side.
Earlier in the innings, India had gone back to Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as the opening pair. Sanju started the blitz, and Abhishek followed suit. Sanju was also tested with a few short balls by Zimbabwe bowlers and hit a few too. But Sanju fell to a similar delivery later.
After Sanju, it was Abhishek’s turn to shine on the field. The opener from the northern part of India kept his head still and didn’t try to premeditate his shots. He tried to hold his shape, stay in the crease, and look to play the ball on merit. Soon after, a couple of good shots from the southpaw led to the crowd chanting his name. Even though India made 80 runs in the powerplay, this was Abhishek’s second slowest fifty (off 28 balls) in T20 cricket. This time, he played with the field instead of hoisting every ball in the air for a four or six.
