Zimbabwe beat India by 10 runs on Sunday to draw the Twenty20 series 1-1 and prevent a clean sweep of their limited-overs tour by a young India side.
India, who won all three one-day internationals and the first Twenty20, could not chase down Zimbabwe’s relatively modest 145-7 in the final match of the tour at Harare Sports Club.
The under-strength India team, which toured without a string of top stars including Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, finished on 135-9. Robin Uthappa top scored with 42.
Photo: AFP
Leg-spinner Graeme Cremer took three for 18 for Zimbabwe, the best bowling performance of the game.
Earlier, opening batsman Chamu Chibhabha maintained his run of form with 67 from 51 balls, including nine fours, to hold together Zimbabwe’s innings.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma had two wickets each for India and Zimbabwe did not offer much else apart from Chibhabha’s half-century, which was ultimately enough.
Fellow opener Hamilton Masakadza made 19 and only one other Zimbabwe player, Sean Williams, reached double figures.
India’s batsmen struggled even more on the low, slow pitch to lose their first game in five in Zimbabwe.
Ajinkya Rahane, standing in as captain on the tour in place of Dhoni, was out first over and Murali Vijay made just 13.
Robin Uthappa hit nine fours in his rapid 42 from 25 deliveries at No. 3 and Stuart Binny made 24 to pick up a little momentum.
India, who tried out some new up-and-coming players on the tour, gave an international debut on Sunday to wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson. He hit 19 from 24 balls, but could not put India in a position to win and Zimbabwe sensed victory when he was caught at long-on to leave the tourists on 117-7 in the 18th over.
In the end, India needed 19 off the final over before Kumar was run out with three balls left.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
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