2 wins in a row for Zimbabwe over India in T20Is

Zimbabwe 170/6 v India 168/6 (20/20 ov) Zimbabwe won by 2 runs

The shorter the contest, the tighter the contest. Zimbabwe, outclassed in all three ODIs, pulled off their second successive 20-over win over India, shading a match of exceedingly tiny margins by two runs to go 1-0 up in the T20I series.

It came down to MS Dhoni and what he could do with the last ball, as it has so many times in his career. India needed four, and Neville Madziva bowled a wide slower ball.

 The margins, as already mentioned, were tiny. India needed 14 off seven balls when Donald Tiripano missed his yorker by a few inches. Axar Patel cleared the fielder at long-off. Second ball of the final over, Madziva bowled a similar delivery, overpitched, and Axar played a similar shot. This time he picked out the fielder.

That brought it down to seven off four. Madziva bowled a pinpoint wide yorker, and Dhoni could not beat the fielder at extra cover. At other times, he may have declined the single. He took it, and left Rishi Dhawan, one of five T20I debutants in India's XI, on strike for the first time with six to get off three balls.

Dhawan couldn't make any connection with Madziva's wide yorker, or with the wide slower ball that followed. The equation should have said six off one at this point, but Russell Tiffin signalled wide - even though it was well within reach of Dhawan, who had moved a long way across - and it said five off two instead. Dhawan scrambled a single and brought Dhoni back on strike, but there was little he could do with Madziva's calmly executed slower ball. Dhoni finished on 19 off 17 balls, and his approach could be seen as questionable, but his approach had brought his team's task down to 8 off the last over, and most would have backed India to win in that situation.

That Zimbabwe set India a target that remained so tantalisingly out of reach was down to one man, Elton Chigumbura, who struck seven sixes in an unbeaten 26-ball 54, and was the prime reason for Zimbabwe scoring 59 off their last five overs.

Dhoni, jumping across to reach it, slapped it to the right of deep point, but could not generate enough power to beat the fielder. He simply moved a few yards to his right and kept India's captain to a single.

Zimbabwe only included one player who did not feature in the ODI series, the legspinning allrounder Tinotenda Mutombodzi.

Zimbabwe 1 Chamu Chibhabha, 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Sikandar Raza, 4 Malcolm Waller, 5 Elton Chigumbura, 6 Tinotenda Mutombodzi, 7 Richmond Mutumbami (wk), 8 Graeme Cremer (capt), 9 Neville Madziva, 10 Taurai Muzarabani, 11 Donald Tiripano

India 1 KL Rahul, 2 Mandeep Singh, 3 Ambati Rayudu, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Rishi Dhawan, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Jasprit Bumrah