A thrilling two run victory for Zimbabwe in the first match and an easy win for India in the second match meant that the series was tied up at 1 – 1. The two teams met today at the Harare Sports club to play the decider. Zimbabwe won the toss and asked India to bat first on a slow pitch. Team India went in with the same side that won the 2nd T20 by 10 wickets.

The Indian opening pair walked out to the middle to set a score for the first time in the series. Both the openers were high on confidence after their outstanding batting in the previous encounter; however, the Zimbabwe bowling unit had different plans. The openers started off cautiously but a poor shot by M. Singh resulted in his departure in the fourth over. K.L Rahul and Manish Pandey also followed getting out on consecutive balls as India lingered at 29/3 at the end of the powerplay. Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav tried to steady the ship with a partnership of 49 until Rayudu got out trying to hit a maximum at long off. M.S Dhoni also failed to get his timing right on the slow deck as he was bowled after scoring 9 runs. Kedar Jadhav however grabbed the opportunity with both hands and struck his maiden half century scoring 58 of 42 balls which helped Team India get to a total of 138/6 in their 20 overs.

Zimbabwe might have gone into the dressing room feeling good about their bowling performance as they needed only a 139 to win the match as well as the series. The Zimbabwe openers walked out to the middle facing Barinder Sran and D. Kulkarni with the new ball. Barinder Sran struck in the third over as he dismissed Chibhabha with a short ball. V. Sibanda and H. Masakadza showed their class with the bat as the former struck D. Kulkarni for 3 boundaries off 3 consecutive deliveries. Axar Patel finally provided the much needed break-through in the 9th over when he caught H. Masakadza plumb in front of the wicket. Another bowling change from Dhoni that worked was the introduction of Dhawal Kulkarni who dismissed the threatening V. Sibanda. Zimbabwe however kept up with the required run rate smashing the ball around and got the boundaries at regular intervals. The Indian bowlers on the other hand were also picking up wickets at regular intervals. The game kept on swinging between the two teams and was a perfect pot boiler all set for the climax. With just 12 deliveries to go Zimbabwe needed 32 runs. A huge hit by Maruma in the penultimate over meant that Zimbabwe needed 21 of the last 6 deliveries to win the series. The first ball of the last over by Barinder Sran was smoked for a maximum by Maruma followed by a no – ball which was effortlessly smacked for a boundary. The crowd was on the edge of their seat as the penultimate ball trickled off the edge to a boundary leaving Zimbabwe with just 4 runs to win of the last ball. Barinder Sran bowled a full toss which was chipped straight to the hands of Y. Chahal.

A thrilling encounter between the two teams came to an end as India emerged victorious by 3 runs clinching the series 2 – 1. Kedar Jadhav was awarded man of the match for his excellent batting where as Barinder Sran was the man of the series for his terrific bowling performance. The hosts displayed great character on the field but the Indians held their nerves till the last moment.