Daijiworld Media Network

Harare, Jun 20 : Hello and welcome to what should turn out to be a pulsating T20 encounter between Zimbabwe and India in Harare. After a disastrous show in the ODIs, where Zimbabwe were trounced 3-0, the hosts shone brightly in the shortest format of the game by winning a cliffhanger. It was Elton Chigumbura, who crunched a volley of powerful blows to notch up an unbeaten fifty.

Zimbabwe have won the toss and have opted to bat

Teams:

MS Dhoni: 'As I said in the post match presentation, we have to give credit to Zimbabwe, but we committed a lot of mistakes in the last game. Our running between the wickets was not good. In a high scoring game a lot of things count. We gave a lot of runs in the middle overs between over No. 13 to over No. 17. We have made a couple of changes. Bumrah is part of us and he will play. Sran and Kulkarni come in. In the last game, because of good batting and a bit of bad bowling, they were able to get 170. Yes, it is a par score, but we did not bat well.'

Cremer: 'We will bat first. It looks like a good wicket. We will try to put runs on the board. I don't think toss is too important. The track won't change much. It might help the spinners a little bit more. The guys are happy with the win, but we know we have two more games to go. We will look to get 170 runs on the board.'

Zimbabwe (Playing XI): Chamu Chibhabha, Hamilton Masakadza, Sikandar Raza, Malcolm Waller, Elton Chigumbura, Peter Moor(w), Tinotenda Mutombodzi, Graeme Cremer(c), Neville Madziva, Taurai Muzarabani, Donald Tiripano
India (Playing XI): Lokesh Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni(w/c), Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Dhawal Kulkarni, Yuzvendra Chahal, Barinder Sran

'This pitch if anything looks better than the last game. It is slightly dry, but the cracks won't trouble the batsmen much. It would nicely come onto the bat and the team winning the toss should bat first,' Atul Wasson with the pitch report

Richmond Mutumbami who was troubled by a hip injury has been ruled out of today's encounter.

Taurai Muzarabani and Chamu Chibhabha then bowled with unremitting control to keep a tight leash on the scoring rate and whittled away at the batting line-up. With just eight runs to cross the finish line in the final over, Madziva was able to land the yorkers and keep the willowy maestro MS Dhoni at bay. Can the hosts continue to surprise the tourists by emerging victorious in the second match? Or will India plot a comeback to draw level?

Preview by Prakash Govindasreenivasan

Zimbabwe's spirited show on Saturday did not just help them turn the morbid affairs of their home series against India, but also added a bit of spark to the Twenty20 International series itself. India looked completely unchallenged in the 50-over format and walked into the T20I series with the confidence of repeating their stellar performance. Yet, Zimbabwe batsmen managed to put their recent grief behind, to offer a sound challenge for the first time in 11 days.

It wasn't the result but the manner in which India failed to finish on top in the chase that pricked MS Dhoni. The inexperience of handling the situation at the international level led to several batsmen throwing their wickets away at several junctures, making life tough for themselves. It was the unforced nature of errors from the young brigade that Dhoni lamented, and hoped for his boys to learn from such a fixture.

Contrastingly, the joy in the Zimbabwean camp knew no bounds. Their victory came as a soothing balm over the bruises of recentannihilations. It helped that twosenior pros, Elton Chigumbura and Hamilton Masakadza, found a way to strike form and lay the platform for Neville Madziva to bowl a fine last over.

While the celebration is well-deserved, the need for them to maintain high levels of performance and kick-on from here will be of paramount importance for the hosts. They will be wary of an Indian backlash on Monday (June 20), as the visitors will be eager to not let Zimbabwe seal the series with another win.

When: June 20 at 01:00 PM Local Time, 04:30 PM IST

Where: Harare Sports Club, Harare

What to expect: Plenty of sunshine expected with a maximum temperature of 24 degrees celsius