ZIM vs IND 2024: Zimbabwe vs India, 5th T20I - Who Said What?

India took on Zimbabwe in the fifth T20I at the Harare Sports Club in Harare on July 14. Zimbabwe won the toss and opted to bowl first. Yashasvi Jaiswal started off from where he left in the last match with two maximums but fell after two balls. Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma followed suit scoring 13 and 14 respectively. Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag forged a 65-run stand for the fourth wicket and India were back in the game.

Samson scored 58 off 45 and Parag pitched in with 22 off 24. Shivam Dube scored a quickfire 26 off 12 before falling victim to an unfortunate runout. Rinku Singh played a small cameo of an unbeaten 11 off 9 and India posted a decent total of 167 on the board losing six wickets in the process. Blessing Muzarbani picked two wickets as Sikandar Raza, Richard Ngarava and Brandon Mavuta picked one each.

While chasing, Zimbabwe lost Weslley Madhevere and Brian Bennett with 15 runs on board. Tadiwanshe Marumani and Dion Myers did patch-up work scoring 27 and 34 runs, respectively. The middle order was dismantled by Mukesh Kumar, Abhishek Sharma, and Dube’s splendid runout. Faraz Akram showed a fight with his 27 off 13, but the hosts were bundled up for 125 runs. India won the game by 42 runs and the series by 4-1. Mukesh dazzled with his four-wicket haul. 

ZIM vs IND, Fifth T20I - Who Said What?

Winning Captain, Shubman Gill said:

Excellent series. The hunger that we showed after the first loss was phenomenal to watch. Lot of the players had long flights, they weren't used to the conditions. The way they adapted was remarkable. I have been there (Sri Lanka) once for Asia Cup, looking forward to go there and performing.

Losing Captain, Sikandar Raza said:

I thought Blessing bowled well the whole series. Batting-wise, we are below-par. The grey thing for me is the attitude in the field, that's something we can improve. Richie (Ngarava) wasn't fit at the start, to have him fit is a blessing. To have Richie and Blessing complementing each other, very happy to see them. My workload needs to be managed. I will go back to play domestic cricket. I am still available for Test match cricket. I leave for The Hundred in a few days time.

Player of the Match, Shivam Dube said:

It's always a special thing to contribute in both departments. Took some wickets, very happy. In T20s, you can struggle but one shot and you can get back. The ground is big, we enjoy playing here, the atmosphere and the people are amazing.

Player of the Series, Washington Sundar said:

Good to have finished with a win. After the first game, the conditions were similar to South Africa getting that extra bounce and extra pace. We had enough time to get a lot of information. Lot of takeaways and learnings, I bowled a lot in this series. We had a lot of success as a team.