Harare, July 6 (IANS) After suffering a stunning 13-run defeat to Zimbabwe in the T20I series opener, a disappointed India captain Shubman Gill said it would have been in the best interest of the visitors’ if he had stayed till the end at the Harare Sports Club. Last week, under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, India won the T20 World Cup, triggering a long party in the country. But the happy wave of the triumph came to a halt as Zimbabwe handed India their first defeat in T20Is this year.

Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi had taken career-best figures of 4-13 as India restricted Zimbabwe to 115/9. But Zimbabwe bowlers, led by three-fers from Tendai Chatara and captain Sikandar Raza, bowled out India for 102 in 19.5 overs, leading to jubilant scenes amongst their passionate fans at the stadium.

“We bowled pretty well; we let ourselves down in the field. We were not up to standard and everyone looked a bit rusty. We spoke about taking time and enjoying our batting, but it didn’t pan out that way. Halfway through we had lost five wickets, and it would’ve been best for us if I stayed there till the end.”

“Very disappointed with the way I got out and the rest of the match panned out. There was a bit of hope for us but when you’re chasing 115 and your no.10 batter is out there, you know something is wrong,” said Gill, who made 31, after the match ended.

Sikandar Raza, the Zimbabwe captain who took Player of the Match, said he felt elated over getting a famous win over India.

“Feel really happy about the win. Need to take one game at a time. The job is not done, series is not over. World champions play like world champions so we need to be ready for the next game.”

“This isn’t a wicket where you get bowled out for 115. Credit to the bowlers on both sides. Clearly an indication we need to up our skills. I said I don’t care about the result as long as we could be true to the crowd and changing room.”

“We had our plans, we stuck to it and we backed our guys. Our catching and ground fielding was amazing but we did make some errors, which shows there’s room for improvement. We knew the fans would lift us and give us energy, credit to them, it helped us.”

A useful 29 not out from Clive Madande and his 25-run stand for the last wicket with Chatara helped Zimbabwe reach a respectable total. Madande even hit three boundaries in the final over off Avesh Khan as 15 runs came off it.

“Just wanted to play throughout the innings, tried to get as many as we could. Tried to protect my partner, ended up getting 115 which was okay on this wicket. Told him (Chatara) simple things, I tried to let him play just 2 balls in an over. We told the boys to give it our all and to give our 100% no matter what.”

Zimbabwe now have a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series and will play the second match against India at the same venue on Sunday.

–IANS

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Mumbai, July 6 (IANS) Harmanpreet Kaur will lead a 15-member Indian Women’s team to Sri Lanka for the upcoming 2024 Women’s Asia Cup T20, which is set to take place in Dambulla, from July 19. The in-form Smriti Mandhana, who top-scored for India in the three-match ODI series, will continue to be the vice-captain of the squad.

The one major surprise in the squad is the inclusion of Saika Ishaque among the travelling reserves. Meghna Singh was also included in the reserves for the tournament all matches of which will be played at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Dambulla.

“The Women’s Selection Committee on Saturday announced the Team India (Senior Women) squad for the upcoming Women’s Asia Cup T20, 2024 which is set to take place in Dambulla, Sri Lanka,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) informed in a release on Saturday.

India, who are in Group A in the tournament, will play their opening game of the tournament against Pakistan on July 19. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will then take on UAE on July 21 followed by their clash against Nepal on July 23 in the group stage of the tournament.

Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Uma Chetry (WK), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan

Traveling reserves: Shweta Sehrawat, Saika Ishaque, Tanuja Kanwer, Meghna Singh.

–IANS

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Harare, July 6 (IANS) Tendai Chatara and captain Sikandar Raza took three wickets each as Zimbabwe pulled off a shock 13-run victory over an inexperienced and new-look India in the T20I series opener at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday.

Pushed into batting first, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi’s career-best figures of 4-13 restricted Zimbabwe to 115/9, with a useful 29 not out from Clive Madande and his 25-run stand for the last wicket with Chatara helping the hosts reach a respectable total.

In reply, the Indian batting line-up having three debutants, struggled to apply themselves and perished to poor shot selection to be four down in the Power-play. Despite some glimmers of hope from Avesh Khan and Washington Sundar, India were bowled out for just 102 in 19.5 overs.

The result also marks India’s first defeat in the format in 2024 and makes 115 the lowest defended total by the opposition against them in men’s T20Is, with Zimbabwe now taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Chasing 116, Abhishek Sharma didn’t have a memorable debut as he heaved to deep mid-wicket off Brian Bennett to fall for a four-ball duck.

Ruturaj Gaikwad was next to fall — caught at the crease while pushing a length ball from Blessing Muzarabani and the outside edge was snapped by the first slip. Debutant Riyan Parag tried to clear mid-on against Chatara, but the extra bounce took the splice edge to mid-off and he fell for just two. One brought two for Chatara as Rinku Singh tried to heave across the line, but top-edge was caught by a short fine-leg and fell for a duck.

The vociferous crowd at the Harare Sports Club further raised its voice when Dhruv Jurel was enticed to drive a slower ball from Luke Jongwe and hit straight to extra cover in the tenth over. The voices from the crowd hit the roof when Shubman Gill tried to play Raza through the leg-side but was castled by the carrom ball from Zimbabwe’s captain.

Bishnoi took two fours off Raza, but the all-rounder had the last laugh by trapping the batter lbw. Avesh breathed life into India’s chase by getting a boundary off a thick inside edge from Jongwe, followed by swiping Wellington Masakadza for consecutive fours.

But the left-arm spinner bounced back as Avesh holed out straight to long-off on a full toss, followed by Raza finishing his spell by castling Mukesh Kumar through the gate. Washington brought India back in the chase by pulling Jongwe for six and four respectively to bring the equation to 18 runs off 12 balls. But Muzarabani nailed his length balls to give away two runs in the 19th over and make the equation as 16 runs needed off the final over. Some electric fielding from Muzarabani and Jonathan Campbell meant Zimbabwe saved potential boundaries on consecutive balls.

Sundar went for a big swipe off Chatara, but Muzarabani took a tumbling catch at backward square leg to complete a massive win for Zimbabwe, leaving the players and fans in the stadium absolutely ecstatic.

Earlier, Bishnoi sliced through Zimbabwe’s batting line-up with his deceptive googlies in the middle overs to pick a four-wicket haul. Washington was hard to hit too in picking 2-11, while Mukesh Kumar and Avesh had a scalp apiece.

Mukesh got India the first breakthrough as Innocent Kaia didn’t account for the swing on a fuller ball and saw his leg stump being uprooted for a golden duck in the second over.

Bennett got going with two fours off Mukesh, followed by him and Wesley Madhevere taking two boundaries each off an erring Khaleel Ahmed in the fifth over going for 17 runs.

Bennett, dropped on 18 by Avesh off Khaleel, was dismissed for 23 when he looked to drive a Bishnoi googly, but the ball struck off-stump and bail fell down in the last over of power-play. The leg-spinner struck again in his second over when Madhevere attempted to sweep but missed the quicker googly and was castled for 21.

Raza swept Abhishek for four, before greeting Avesh with the full face of the bat to elegantly loft straight over the bowler’s head for six. But after that, Zimbabwe’s innings began to fall like nine pins. In an attempt to up the scoring rate, Raza went for a pull off Avesh but holed out to long-on.

A huge mix-up resulted in Dion Myers and Campbell running to the striker’s end, and the fielder at point threw the ball to the non-striker’s end to have the latter run out for a golden duck. Washington then had Myers giving him a return catch on his bowling and beat Masakadza on the outside edge to dismiss him for a golden duck.

In his final over, Bishnoi trapped Jongwe lbw and castled Muzarabani to leave Zimbabwe in danger of not batting their full quota of overs. But Madande hit four boundaries in a late cameo of 29 not out off 23 balls, including three in the final over off Avesh, to take Zimbabwe to 115, which was enough to seal a famous win for the hosts.

Brief scores:

Zimbabwe 115/9 in 20 overs (Clive Madande 29 not out; Ravi Bishnoi 4-13, Washington Sundar 2-11) beat India 102 in 19.5 overs (Shubman Gill 31; Tendai Chatara 3-16, Sikandar Raza 3-25) by 13 runs

–IANS

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Riyadh, July 6 (IANS) Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani fell short in his quest to secure a hat-trick of titles at the 2024 Asian Billiards Championship after going down against compatriot Dhruv Sitwala, 2-5 in the final round.

Sitwala set the tone for the match with an impressive start, scoring 103 points while Advani struggled to get on the board, finishing with 0 points. Advani managed to improve his game, scoring 36 points, but Dhruv maintained his dominance with another 100.

In a surprising turn, Advani found his rhythm and outplayed Sitwala, achieving a remarkable 101. Sitwala, however, had an off-frame, scoring only 2.

Advani continued his momentum and scored 100, while Sitwala managed only 11. Sitwala’s consistency shone through as he scored 100 again. Pankaj, unable to keep up, ended the frame with 64. In the final two frames, Sitwala continued his streak with 101 and a perfect 100, while Advani managed to score 23 and 0. The match ended with Sitwala lifting the trophy.

Talking after the match, Advani said, “It was a thrilling match against a good friend of mine. Dhruv played the game really well and didn’t give any gap to recover. However, it was good to be here in Saudi for the first time and I hope to come back again soon and hopefully lift the title.”

“I have always said that I understand the unpredictable nature of the sport and the competition was packed with some very formidable opponents. It was a fiercely contested championship and I am glad that I was in the final with a highly-competitive opponent, where I fell short. Nevertheless, I am taking all the learnings as a lesson for my future tournaments,” he signed off.

–IANS

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Harare, July 6 (IANS) Tendai Chatara and captain Sikandar Raza took three wickets each as Zimbabwe pulled off a shock 13-run victory over an inexperienced India in the T20I series opener at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday. Pushed into batting first, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi’s career-best figures of 4-13 restricted Zimbabwe to 115/9, with a useful 29 not out from Clive Madande and his 25-run stand for the last wicket with Chatara helping the hosts reach a respectable total.

In reply, the Indian batting line-up, which had three debutants, struggled to apply themselves and perished to poor shot selection to be four down in power-play. Despite some glimmers of hope from Avesh Khan and Washington Sundar, India went in chase of the total and were bowled out for just 102.

The result also marks India’s first defeat in the format in 2024 and makes 115 the lowest defended total by the opposition against them in men’s T20Is. Chasing 116, Abhishek Sharma didn’t have a memorable debut as he heaved to deep mid-wicket off Brian Bennett to fall for a four-ball duck.

Ruturaj Gaikwad was next to fall – caught at the crease while pushing a length ball from Blessing Muzarabani and the outside edge was snapped by the first slip. Debutant Riyan Parag tried to clear mid-on against Chatara, but the extra bounce took the splice edge to mid-off and fall for just two. One brought two for Chatara as Rinku Singh tried to heave across the line, but top-edge was caught by short fine-leg and fell for a duck.

The vociferous crowd at the Harare Sports Club further raised its voice when Dhruv Jurel was enticed to drive a slower ball from Luke Jongwe and hit straight to extra cover in the tenth over. The voices from the crowd hit the roof when Shubman Gill tried to play Raza through the leg-side, but was castled by the carrom ball from Zimbabwe’s captain.

Bishnoi took two fours off Raza, but the all-rounder had the last laugh by trapping the batter lbw. Avesh breathed life into India’s chase by getting a boundary off a thick inside edge from Jongwe, followed by swiping Wellington Masakadza for consecutive fours.

But the left-arm spinner bounced back as Avesh holed out straight to long-off on a full toss, followed by Raza finishing his spell by castling Mukesh Kumar through the gate. Washington brought India back in the chase by pulling Jongwe for six and four respectively to bring the equation to 18 runs off 12 balls.

But Muzarabani nailed his length balls to give away two runs in the 19th over and make the equation as 16 runs needed off the final over. Some electric fielding from Muzarabani and Jonathan Campbell meant Zimbabwe saved potential boundaries on consecutive balls.

Sundar went for a big swipe off Chatara, but Muzarabani took a tumbling catch at backward square leg to complete a massive win for Zimbabwe, leaving the players and fans in the stadium absolutely ecstatic.

Brief scores:

Zimbabwe 115/9 in 20 overs (Clive Madande 29 not out; Ravi Bishnoi 4-13, Washington Sundar 2-11) beat India 102 in 19.5 overs (Shubman Gill 31; Tendai Chatara 3-16, Sikandar Raza 3-25) by 13 runs

–IANS

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