Shubman Gill-led team India was brutally targetted by memers after they lost the first T20I against Zimbabwe in the five-match series on July 6 at Harare Sports Club, Harare. Team India with three T20I debutants lost the first T20I by 13 runs.
India, who were recently crowned champions in the T20 World Cup albeit with a different set of players, were expected to trot past an unfancied Zimbabwe and the script followed that line when the hosts were restricted to 115 for nine.
While chasing, The Men in Blue bundled out on 102 runs where Shubman Gill was the only batter who managed to score more than 30 runs. Memers started trolling team India soon after the loss against Zimbabwe, here are the viral memes.
Coming back to India's batting, India’s stutter began in the first over itself, losing Abhishek Sharma, one of three T20I debutants along with Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel, for duck. Sharma's almighty cross-batted heave off Brian Benett was caught easily by Wellington Masakadza in the outfield.
But what was perceived as an initial scratch soon turned into a deep gash as India kept losing wickets. Ruturaj Gaikwad (7) could not negate a slightly bouncier offering from pacer Blessing Muzarabani, edging it to Innocent Kaia at the floating first slip.
Soon, pacer Tendai Chatara dealt a double blow to India, dismissing Parag (2) and Rinku Singh (0) in the space of three balls in the fifth over. Parag’s over-enthusiastic loft over mid-off could not clear substitute Brandon Mavuta, while Rinku did not have the necessary space to execute pull off a climbing-up delivery.
However, skipper Shubman Gill kept India in the chase with a sensible knock (31, 5x4), but Sikandar Raza accounted for his counterpart with a delivery that skidded past his bat to rattle the stumps.
Avesh Khan (16, 12b) and Washington Sundar (27, 34b) added 23 runs for the eighth wicket to take India to 84 but a full-blooded smash off a Masakadza full-toss was accepted by Raza at long-off.
At 84 for eight and then at 86 for nine, the fight was well and truly over. India needed 16 runs off the last over and despite Washington being there, they could only manage just two runs as Zimbabwe celebrated a famous win with all fervour.
with PTI inputs
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