India 216 for 7 (Harmanpreet 91*, Shafali 69, Biza 3-50) beat Zimbabwe 124 for 7 (Mayers 60, Biza 44, Nandani 3-18) by 92 runs
Shafali’s splendid run continues
India captain Smriti Mandhana said at the toss that India’s decision to bat first was to give the middle order some game time. Perhaps with that in mind, Anushka, who had batted at No. 3 in the first two games, opened alongside Shafali. Mandhana did not bat on the day.
Shafali took a few deliveries to settle in before launching Tendai Makusha over deep backward square leg for a six in the second over. Anushka too was watchful to begin with but soon found her rhythm, striking Nomvelo Sibanda for a couple of boundaries in the third over. The duo took Makusha’s next over for 16 runs to bring up the 50-run stand in the fifth over. But just as the partnership threatened to gather momentum, Nyasha Gwanzura pulled off a superb leaping catch at midwicket to end Anushka’s 20-ball stay.
Niki Prasad then walked in at No. 3 but couldn’t make much of an impact, falling to another fine catch, this time by Loryn Phiri off Gwanzura’s bowling. Gwanzura tempted Prasad with a delivery outside off and the batter went after it, only to slice the ball as Phiri ran left from mid-off and pouched the catch on rebound.
Losing two of her partners did not slow Shafali down, who then shifted gears, hitting three sixes and a four in a sequence of five deliveries, racing to her 23rd T20I half-century off just 26 balls. It was her ninth fifty of the year.
Vintage Harman on show
Harmanpreet was out for 1 in the first T20I and did not get to bat in the second. But when she finally got time in the middle, she made sure to make it count. Coming in at No. 4, she hit just one boundary in the first 12 balls she faced, but then switched gears in an emphatic fashion, taking 20 runs off Chigora’s over, which included two fours and two sixes.
Even as Shafali departed, Harmanpreet continued to find boundaries, including three in Sibanda’s over, in which she also brought up her 19th T20I fifty. Harmanpreet unleashed two of her biggest hits of the evening against Biza, dancing down the track to launch an 82-metre six over long-on and then charging down again for an even bigger 89-metre six.
But India lost quick wickets around Harmanpreet, with Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma and Arundhati Reddy departing cheaply. Harmanpreet was on 81 when she took strike on the first ball of the last over, but could only get 10 runs off it as she finished on 91 off 41 balls.
Zimbabwe fight to no avail
Chasing a daunting target, Zimbabwe felt the pressure from the outset. Gaud struck with her first delivery, as Kelis Ndhlovu chased a wide ball outside off and sliced it towards short extra cover, where Prasad dived to her right to take a sharp catch. Nandani Sharma then struck in the second over, having Modester Mupachikwa caught behind for 1.
Biza and Mayers then came together and set about rebuilding cautiously, prioritising strike rotation over big hits. Mayers managed to hit a couple of sixes and a boundary on the way to the pair’s fifty-run stand, but Zimbabwe could only reach 62 for 2 at the end of 10 overs, with the required run rate climbing to 15.50 at that point.
The partnership offered Zimbabwe a glimmer of hope, but the target remained a mountain to climb. Mayers briefly tried to shift the momentum, taking on Prema Rawat, who had come in for N Shree Charani for this match, for two sixes and a four. She got to her fifty off 45 balls in the 14th over. But her resistance ended in the next over, when she miscued a full, flighted delivery outside off while reaching for a big hit.
From there, Zimbabwe never found a way back. Biza made 44, but Zimbabwe lost a bunch of wickets, with Arundhati and Deepti taking one each and Nandani taking two off the final over, as they fell 92 runs short.
Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at Cricinfo
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