India are the No. 1 team in T20Is again. They regained the top spot from England after their second T20I win against Zimbabwe. India had lost the No. 1 ranking after losing the T20I series against England earlier this month. Power-packed fifties by Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma, combined with a disciplined bowling effort, helped India thrash Zimbabwe by 90 runs in the second T20I to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series on Saturday.
Chasing 220 was never going to be easy for the Africans, and the fate of the match was sealed when they lost five wickets inside nine overs. Eventually, they were bundled out for 129, well short of India’s 219 for five, which was constructed around Kishan’s 81 and Tilak’s unbeaten 60.
In the rankings on the ICC website on Saturday, it showed that India had surpassed England.
The India vs Zimbabwe series win will also give new T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer a big relief after losing two consecutive series against Ireland (0-2) and England (0-4).
However, Zimbabwe started the chase in earnest through Brian Bennett (32, 19b, 3×4, 3×6), who creamed debutant pacer Yash Thakur for a six and a four in quick succession.
But Thakur (2/30) extracted quick revenge, as an attempted ramp did not go past wicketkeeper Kishan.
Once the first blood was drawn, the Indian bowlers did not let the Zimbabwe batters off the hook.
There were little pockets of resistance, such as scores in the 20s by Ryan Burl and Tadiwanashe Marumani, but nothing substantial enough to challenge the Indian bowlers for a sustained period.
Even part-timers Tilak and Abhishek Sharma (3/17) found themselves among the wicket-takers as India completed the stroll.
But the circumstances that led to the employment of part-timers might give India some worries.
Pacer Prince Yadav (2/10 in 1.2 overs) walked off clutching his hamstring, casting a shadow over an otherwise dominant victory and raising another question about the team’s injury management system.
The foundation of that landslide win was India’s intent-filled batting effort, led by Kishan and Tilak.
Asked to bat first, India were in early trouble at 29 for two.
But Kishan first added 66 runs for the third wicket with skipper Shreyas Iyer (25) and then 94 for the next wicket with Tilak as the tourists overcame the early wobble.
Kishan paced his knock to perfection as he focused on providing stability to the Indian innings. The left-hander brought up his fifty in 31 balls, but the next 31 runs came in just 13 balls as he pressed on the accelerator.
The on-side play was the hallmark of his innings, with the batter peppering the regions around mid-wicket with constant big hits.
Off-spinner Bennett was clobbered for two fours to that part of the field, while pacer Brad Evans was punished with scores of 4, 4 and 6 through the on side.
Tilak, on the other hand, silenced the talk around his strike rate for now, playing a sensational supporting innings and reaching his fifty in 23 balls