1st T20: India wins toss, opts to bat first vs. Zimbabwe

After winning their One-Day worldwide series 3-0 earlier in the month, an inexperienced India squad then recorded a 54-run victory in the first T20 matchup on Friday.

Zimbabwe will hope their star hitter Chamu Chibhabha comes good and single handedly lead them to victories.

Several Indian batsmen, namely Ambati Rayudu, skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Kedar Yadav and Murali Vijay, were among runs in the ODIs.

Zimbabwe as soon as once more struggled against a disciplined bowling efficiency by India because the hosts have been restricted to one hundred forty five-7 within the second and last T20 worldwide at Harare. Even as Vijay scratched around at the other end, with some jittery running hampering his cause further, Uthappa played the most fluent innings of the match.

India will hope to end the Zimbabwe tour on a high with a win in the second Twenty20 global at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday. Uthappa will also like to make a big score, after his crucial knock in the first T20.

Sent in to bat, India made a cautious start before Jadhav blazed an unbeaten 105 from 87 balls to propel the tourists to 276 for five in their 50 overs.

India fielded five debutants Akshar Patel, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadav, Sandip Sharma and Stuart Binny for the T20 match on Friday.

With this defeat, Zimbabwe have now lost 9 successive T20Is at Harare.

Well, it surely is a problem for less experienced Zimbabwean team as they are not looking able to compete with such performance oriented and desperate bunch of boys. Allrounder Stuart Binny and bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, spinners Axar Patel and Harbhajan Singh were successful at taking wickets. I was glad I was able to bat through for the team today and set up that good total. It would be a task for captain Elton Chigumbura and his men to bounce back and stay positive after the ODI debacle.

Zimbabwe: Hamilton Masakadza, Chamu Chibhabha, Charles Coventry, Sikandar Raza (captain), Sean Williams, Craig Ervine, Graeme Cremer, Prosper Utseya, Christopher Mpofu, Taurai Muzarabani, Malcolm Waller.