2) Zimbabwe vs India – 1st T20I, June 18th, 2016 (Zimbabwe won by 2 runs)
The first T20I of India’s tour of Zimbabwe took place at the Harare Sports Club and MS Dhoni, as usual, won the toss and chose to field. After a rather sedate beginning, Zimbabwe put on the after burners, courtesy Elton Chigumbura (54 not out from 26 balls), to post a strong total of 170 on a wicket that was a bit sticky and two-paced. India’s innings began rather poorly when KL Rahul was dismissed for a golden duck on the first ball of the chase.
Ambati Rayudu (19 from 16) and Mandeep Singh (31 from 27 balls) did some repair work before Manish Pandey (48 from 35 balls) provided necessary momenntum to take India towards victory. Dhoni came in the 13th over with the team reeling at 90-4 and decided to provide some stability by knocking the ball around. After the dismissal of Manish Pandey, Axar Patel played a lovely knock of 18 from 9 balls to put the game within India’s reach.
The game came down to the last over and India needed 8 runs from 6 balls. Dhoni took a single to give the strike to Patel, who got out to put all the onus on his skipper. The next batsman, Rish Dhawan, succumbed to pressure and after Dhoni took a single on the third delivery, he missed the fourth and took a single off the fifth. Dhoni, needing to hit a boundary off the last ball, was outfoxed by Madziva, who bowled a lovely full delivery outside off-stump to give Zimbabwe a memorable 2-run win.
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