T20 World Cup: India bags mammoth victory, wins by 71 runs against Zimbabwe

Team India has booked its spot for the semifinals by defeating Zimbabwe by 71 runs in today’s match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.

With this victory, India has become at the top of the table of Group 2 with 8 points out of five matches.

In the match, the first innings was played by India and the men in blue batted in a magnificent way. Besides, the half centuries from the bats of  Suryakumar and K.L Rahul set the score of 187 against Zimbabwe

In defence of 186, India had success on the very first ball as Wesley Madhevere tried to reach out for a drive on a swinging-away delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but was caught by a diving short cover.

In the next over, Arshdeep Singh lured Regis Chakabva for a drive, but the late swing in off a fuller length meant the ball went through the gate to hit the stumps. With Bhuvneshwar and Arshdeep getting the new ball to swing, it made life difficult for Zimbabwe till captain Craig Ervine took a four each of them.

After hooking Mohammed Shami for a six over fine-leg, Williams swung away from the body and was caught at the third man on the last ball of Power-play. Post-Powerplay, Ervine chipped in the air off Hardik Pandya and was caught by the bowler off his right hand. In the next over, Shami struck again by trapping Tony Munyonga plumb lbw.

Ryan Burl was impressive with his sweep and reverse-sweeps, one of which got him a six off Ravichandran Ashwin apart from smashing anything with width for boundaries off the off-spinner, Pandya and Axar Patel.

But Ashwin struck to break the 60-run partnership, forcing Burl to go for an on-drive on a fuller ball and rattled the stumps. He then took out Wellington Masakadza and Richard Ngarava in quick succession to bag a three-fer. Raza holed out on a pull in the deep off Pandya while Tendai Chatara gave Axar Patel a simple catch off his bowling to give India a huge win.

Brief scores: India 186/5 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 61 not out, K.L Rahul 51; Sean Williams 2-9, Sikandar Raza 1-18) beat Zimbabwe (Ryan Burl 35, Sikandar Raza 34; Ravichandran Ashwin 3-22, Mohammed Shami 2-14) by 71 runs