India 219 for 5 (Kishan 81, Tilak 60, Bennett 1-22) beat Zimbabwe 129 (Bennett 32, Abhishek 3-17, Prince 2-10) by 90 runs

After being blanked in Ireland and England, Shreyas Iyer’s India sealed their T20I series win in Zimbabwe with one match to spare. At no stage during Saturday’s second T20I did it look like a result other than an India win was even remotely on the cards.

For that, India have Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma to thank. Put in to bat by Sikandar Raza, India wobbled early, but the pair struck aggressive half-centuries to inject momentum into the middle and death overs that fuelled India to 219 for 5. This was 90 too many for an inexperienced Zimbabwe line-up; Brian Bennett’s 32 up top being the highest score of their innings.

India tried out as many as seven bowling options, mainly due to Prince Yadav walking off with a suspected left hamstring strain, but they got the job done without being stretched.

Sooryavanshi flickers briefly

Abhishek Sharma started well by hitting back-to-back fours off Sikandar Raza, but spooned a simple catch to point for 8. At the other end, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi began like he often does. Backing away to pull anything remotely short seemed a premeditated plan, and he connected two short deliveries.

When the ball was floated fuller, he backed away to loft it over mid-off. Left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava was taken for 4, 4, 6, 4, but he was rewarded for sticking to the short-ball ploy as Sooryavanshi miscued a pull to mid-on, leaving India 29 for 2 in three overs.

Kishan takes charge

Kishan didn’t take long to find his range, peppering boundaries in the arc between deep midwicket and deep square leg with pull shots against the fast bowlers. Then with spin introduced, Kishan showed his range by driving imperiously through the covers, or using the pace to play the delicate game behind square.

He was comfortably the aggressor during his 66-run stand with Shreyas Iyer that ended when the India captain cut one straight to backward point. Kishan got to his half-century off 31 deliveries, before cutting loose when he muscled his first six off Brad Evans in the 13th. Then in the 15th over, he took Raza for 21 by repeatedly using the depth of the crease to pull, and then step out to bludgeon a monstrous six over deep midwicket.

Tilak finds his tempo

Tilak’s numbers against spin don’t paint a pretty picture. He is the slowest among Indian batters who have faced at least 100 balls in T20s this year. And it was against spin that he had to come in and find his gears. It helped that the second ball he faced was full down leg, which he swept fine for a boundary.

Right from the very beginning, he wasn’t risk-averse, as his attempt to throw Blessing Muzarabani off his length by playing the scoop suggested. What really looked pristine, though, was his off-side strokeplay, particularly while using the pace to pick gaps behind point. He used this to pick three fours in a row off Muzarabani in the 14th to race to 23 off 12. When bowlers tried to cut off that side of the ground, Tilak was quick to walk across and fetch length balls from outside off using his long levers and belt them wide of long-on and over cow corner.

The shot of the innings was the one off Ngarava. Having tricked the bowler into believing he would shuffle, he stood his ground and cleared his front leg to swing over long-on. One ball later, he raced to a 23-ball half-century, with three overs remaining. India eventually managed 31 off the last three, with some help from Rinku Singh, to finish with 219.

Bennett’s hit-or-miss knock

Bennett should have been out in the very first over of the chase when he got a nick through to Kishan, except no one appealed. One ball later, he smashed debutant seamer Yash Thakur straight to extra cover, where Tilak put down a sitter. Bennett then raced to 32, but Thakur wasn’t to be denied for long as a slower delivery had Bennett toe-ending a scoop to Kishan behind the stumps. Thakur would later return to clean up Tadiwanashe Marumani with an offcutter.

Prince hobbles off, Abhishek makes merry

Off his first delivery, Prince had Ben Curran get a thick outside edge to deep third for 1. And in his second over, the sixth of the innings, he had Raza nick a hard-length delivery as he attempted to drive on the up. He wouldn’t bowl another ball after pulling up from his delivery stride by clutching his left hamstring. He had figures of 2 for 10 off 1.2 overs and didn’t return for the remainder of the game.

That meant India had to employ Abhishek Sharma for a few overs, and he more than made it count by taking wickets towards the end as batter after batter kept slogging and finding the fielders. He finished with 3 for 17 to round off a day he would have liked to have contributed more with the bat.