Brian Bennett’s 97 in vain as India crush Zimbabwe

CHENNAI: Zimbabwe were knocked out of the T20 World Cup after suffering their second consecutive defeat in the Super Eight stage. The African side, which had earlier impressed by defeating strong teams like Australia and Sri Lanka in the group stage, failed to repeat that performance in the second round. They lost to India by 72 runs.

Batting first, India scored 256 for 4 in 20 overs. In reply, Zimbabwe managed 184 for 6 in their 20 overs and fell well short of the huge target. Brian Bennett remained unbeaten on 97, but the team could not keep up with the required run rate. Captain Sikandar Raza scored 31, while the rest of the batting line-up failed to make a major impact.

For India, Arshdeep Singh took three wickets, while Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy and Shivam Dube picked up one wicket each. With India's win over Zimbabwe, South Africa confirmed their place in the semi-finals. The winner of the India vs West Indies match will qualify as the second semi-finalist from the group.

Earlier, Indian openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma gave the team a strong start. Abhishek Sharma was the top scorer with 55, while Hardik Pandya (50 off 23) also scored an unbeaten half-century. Hardik and Tilak Varma (44 off 16) remained not out as India posted a massive total, hitting 17 sixes and 17 fours in the innings.