Zimbabwe beat India in Harare to draw their T20 series
Sunday 19 July 2015 17:37, UK
Chamu Chibhabha hit a career-best 67 as Zimbabwe beat India by 10 runs at Harare Sports Club to draw their Twenty20 series 1-1.
The hosts managed to bring a disappointing run of defeats to an end, scoring 145-7 after winning the toss and then producing an improved fielding performance under stand-in captain Sikandar Raza Butt.
The tourists, who are without a string of key players, had nonetheless won all three one-day games and the first T20 but they were restricted to 135-9, leg-spinner Graeme Cremer (3-18) taking three crucial wickets.
Zimbabwe built their innings around in-form opener Chibhabha, the man of the match and series making his 67 from 51 balls and hitting nine boundaries.
His fellow opener Hamilton Masakadza (19) and Sean Williams (17) were the only other Zimbabwean batsmen to reach double figures while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-26) and Mohit Sharma (2-28) took two wickets apiece.
After the early run out of captain Ajinkya Rahane (four), Robin Uthappa (42) began putting bat to ball, but Cremer removed Murali Vijay (13) and Manish Pandey (0).
Uthappa was then caught and bowled by Williams after hitting nine fours in his 25-ball knock, and it was 69-5 when Kedar Jadhav (five) became the second man to be run out in the innings.
Stuart Binny (24) tried to get India back on track but he too fell to Cremer and Sanju Samson, a wicket-keeper batsman making his international debut, made 19 from 24 before he was caught at long-on to make it 117-7 in the 18th over.
The Indians needed 19 off the last over in the end but Kumar (9) was run out with three balls left as they fell short.
