Vice Captain Sanju Samson smashed his second T20I fifty with a 45-ball 58, whereas pacer Mukesh Kumar made the best figures in his career in the format through 4-22 as India beat Zimbabwe by 42 runs in the final game at Harare Sports Club, resulting in a 4 match victory in the series. Samson was at his faint best, hitting a four and four sixes in his play, along with sharing a 65-run partnership off 56 balls with Riyan Parag, to bail out India out of trouble after losing their top 3 batters during powerplay.
The wicketkeeper-batter slammed a 110-metre six during the game. It was so big that the ball went out of the ground.
Brandon Mavuta tossed up the ball outside off stump and Samson sent it down the ground for a big shot.
Watch the clip here:
While Samson scored a solid half-century, Dube’s quick play of 26 along with some promising hits from Rinku Singh took India to a solid 167/6, as 30 runs came off the last two overs. In return, Mukesh hit twice with the new ball to put Zimbabwe in early trouble.
Dion Myers and Tadiwanashe Marumani kept Zimbabwe in hopes of some runs, but a breakdown saw the hosts go from 85/3 to 94/7 and by the end, all out at 125 runs in 18.3 overs. Though losing their opening match by 13 runs, India got a strong redemption as they won the all the other matches resulting in a series win of 4-1.
As he took Wesley Madhevere’s wicket in the opening over, Mukesh gave India a fantastic start in their defence of 168. The pacer came back in the third over and sent Brian Bennett off the field as well. He could have go hi third wicket if he had not overstepped while casting Myers.
Myers and Marumani hit seven boundaries in a partnership. But Washington Sundar broke their game by delivering a slower ball to trap Marumani with an lbw.
Myers hit Abhishek Sharma for a four and a six, but Dube took him out in the 13th over with a short ball that was caught off a leaning edge by backward point.
Sikandar Raza being run out because of a mix-up with Jonathan Campbell, couldn’t recover from there. After that, Abhisek and Tushar Deshpande got a wicket each, while Mukesh took remaining two to finish in another convincing win for India.
