Match Preview
India's tour of Zimbabwe comes to an end with the third T20 international to be played on Wednesday at Harare. The series is poised nicely at 1-1 and hopefully, we will have a cracking game of cricket to bring the curtains down on India's tour of the African country.
A lot was expected from Zimbabwe in the second T20 after they got the better of India in the first one. However, that win looked nothing more than an aberration after India were back in their elements and demolished the hosts by 10 wickets on Monday.
Zimbabwe would get another shot at history but they know they would have to play out of their skins to beat India. They could do well to change things around a bit by bowling first against the visitors.
It seems that Zimbabwe are comfortable batting first and India like to bat second which makes the toss quite redundant. Zimbabwe must try to make India play out of their comfort zone and fielding first should be part of their strategy.
India would want an encore of their previous performance and finish the tour with another trophy in their kitty. Expect Dhoni's men to successfully stand up to this challenge and clinch the decider.
Venue: Harare Sports Club, Harare
Match Date: June 22, 2016
Match timings: 1630 Hrs IST
Where to watch LIVE: Ten 1 HD, Ten 3 and DD National
Weather Report: Conditions look good for a game of cricket with temperatures hovering around 21 degree Celsius. No chance of rain.
Zimbabwe Team News and Prediction
Predicted score: 140 and above
Zimbabwe could bat first for the sixth time in a row in this tour, with known faces Chamu Chibhabha and Hamilton Masakadza opening the batting one more time. Masakadza, who comes with a bit of a reputation of playing big knocks up the order, will be disappointed that he has not made a massive contribution to the team’s total yet.
Peter Moor who top scored in the previous game should come in at no. 3 and will double up as the wicketkeeper in the absence of Richmond Mutumbami. The experienced duo of Sikandar Raza and Malcolm Waller would like to do better in a crunch game like this.
Also, Zimbabwe will depend a great deal on Elton Chigumbura’s striking power towards the back end of the innings.
Timycen Maruma could replace Mutombodzi at no. 7 as the latter failed to impress in the last couple of games. The bowlers pick themselves with Madziva, Muzarabani and Tiripano in decent form even though they were unsuccessful at picking even a single wicket in the previous game.
The fielding too was disappointing in the last game with a couple of simple catches going down and Zimbabwe would need to pull up their socks if they want to make a match of this.
Zimbabwe Probable XI
1. Hamilton Masakadza 2. Chamu Chibhabha 3. Peter Moor(wk) 4. Sikandar Raza 5. Malcolm Waller 6. Elton Chigumbura 7. Tinotenda Mutombodzi/ Timycen Maruma 8. Graeme Cremer(C) 9. Neville Madziva 10. Taurai Muzarabani 11. Donald Tiripano
India Team News and Prediction
Predicted score: 170 and above
Indians are looking strong here, after they came back hard and registered a comprehensive victory on Monday. The bowlers, especially the pacers, did a fantastic job to restrict the hosts under hundred and the batters got those runs in a canter without breaking a sweat. It was the sort of performance that reminded all of the lopsided ODI series that preceded this T20 series.
India should pick the same side that played the last game. Mandeep Singh, who scored his maiden T20 fifty has been in excellent touch. KL Rahul too was back amongst the runs after a rare failure in the 1st T20. The rest of the batting comprising of Rayudu, Pandey, Jadhav and Dhoni haven’t had too many opportunities but they might get a chance to show their prowess in the final game.
The bowlers have been in rollicking form all through this tour and MS Dhoni will be delighted with their performance. Barinder Sran who was outstanding in the last game did the bulk of the damage up front and managed to pick as many as 4 wickets.
Jasprit Bumrah, who has bowled like a senior pro throughout this tour, was not too far behind picking up 3 wickets. Bumrah’s last 3 overs should be kept for the death as Dhoni prefers using him when the slog is on.
Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel have been economical and they would want to reprise their role yet again in this all-important decider. Expect India to win their final game comfortably and leave African shores with the T20 trophy.
India Probable XI
1. KL Rahul 2. Mandeep Singh 3. Ambati Rayudu 4. Manish Pandey 5. Kedar Jadhav 6. MS Dhoni (C & Wk) 7. Axar Patel 8. Dhawal Kulkarni 9. Yuzvendra Chahal 10. Barinder Sran 11. Jasprit Bumrah
Probable Winner: India
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