Mahendra Singh Dhoni is rated as one of the best finishers in limited overs cricket but even he could not get the better of Zimbabwe pacer Neville Madziva, who bowled a superb final over to give the hosts a thrilling two-run victory in the first T20 International in Harare, on Saturday.
- Scorecard
With India needing four runs off the last ball for victory and captain Dhoni on strike, the visitors still fancied their chances but 24-year-old Madziva, who has played just 12 ODIs and seven T20Is, kept his cool in a pressure situation as he bowled it well outside the off-stump. Dhoni, who scored a sedate 19 from 17 balls, reached out to the wide delivery but managed just a single as India ended up on 168 for six in their 20 overs in reply to Zimbabwe's 170 for six.
"Ultimately, the contest is between the bat and ball. I felt the last ball was brilliant," said Dhoni after the match.
India were the favourites at the start of the last over, with eight needed for victory from the last six balls. But Dhoni failed to get away the big hits or keep the strike as he took three singles during the over and was also unable to get the final ball away.
Dhoni said it was a learning curve for his young inexperienced batting line-up, who made a lot of mistakes and threw their wickets away at crucial junctures. He also pointed out that there is a big difference when playing at the international level as compared to domestic cricket and his young side needs to cut out the silly errors.
"We did not play to potential. A lot of wickets were not full-fledged shots, more like catching practice. You may be doing well in the domestic circuit but there is more pressure when you go from India 'A' to India. It's good learning curve for them. There were a lots of errors committed by the batsmen. We were not playing with out first eleven in the bowling department. Our lengths were not right," Dhoni said making it clear that Rishi Dhawan and Jaydev Unadkat were not upto the mark.
Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer said the inspiring victory has taken a big monkey off his back and warned the visitors of even better performance in the remaining two matches.
"Excellent to comeback from the losses in ODI series. A lot of pressure off me. We are not going to stop here," he said.
Cremer was effusive in his praise for Elton Chigumbura, who played a sensational knock of unbeaten 55 off 26 balls to change the script in the final few overs.
"We know Elton can always be dangerous. He is one innings away from doing something special again. India are a tough side, today it could have gone either way and luckily it went our way."
Chigumbura hailed his team mates for contributing in the victory.
"Everyone contributed today. This one will give us the confidence to do the same thing again, and improve," he said with a smile dedicating the Man of the Match award to his wife as it was her birthday.
