After being blanked in Ireland and England, Shreyas Iyer’s India sealed their T20I series win in Zimbabwe with one match to spare. At no stage during Saturday’s second T20I did it look like a result other than an India win was even remotely on the cards.

For that, India have Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma to thank. Put in to bat by Sikandar Raza, India wobbled early, but the pair struck aggressive half-centuries to inject momentum into the middle and death overs that fuelled India to 219 for 5. This was 90 too many for an inexperienced Zimbabwe line-up; Brian Bennett’s 32 up top being the highest score of their innings.

India tried out as many as seven bowling options, mainly due to Prince Yadav walking off with a suspected left hamstring strain, but they got the job done without being stretched.

Abhishek Sharma started well by hitting back-to-back fours off Sikandar Raza, but spooned a simple catch to point for 8. At the other end, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi began like he often does. Backing away to pull anything remotely short seemed a premeditated plan, and he connected two short deliveries.

When the ball was floated fuller, he backed away to loft it over mid-off. Left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava was taken for 4, 4, 6, 4, but he was rewarded for sticking to the short-ball ploy as Sooryavanshi miscued a pull to mid-on, leaving India 29 for 2 in three overs.

Kishan didn’t take long to find his range, peppering boundaries in the arc between deep midwicket and deep square leg with pull shots against the fast bowlers. Then with spin introduced, Kishan showed his range by driving imperiously through the covers, or using the pace to play the delicate game behind square.

He was comfortably the aggressor during his 66-run stand with Shreyas Iyer that ended when the India captain cut one straight to backward point. Kishan got to his half-century off 31 deliveries, before cutting loose when he muscled his first six off Brad Evans in the 13th. Then in the 15th over, he took Raza for 21 by repeatedly using the depth of the crease to pull, and then step out to bludgeon a monstrous six over deep midwicket.

Tilak’s numbers against spin don’t paint a pretty picture. He is the slowest among Indian batters who have faced at least 100 balls in T20s this year. And it was against spin that he had to come in and find his gears. It helped that the second ball he faced was full down leg, which he swept fine for a boundary.

Right from the very beginning, he wasn’t risk-averse, as his attempt to throw Blessing Muzarabani off his length by playing the scoop suggested. What really looked pristine, though, was his off-side strokeplay, particularly while using the pace to pick gaps behind point. He used this to pick three fours in a row off Muzarabani in the 14th to race to 23 off 12. When bowlers tried to cut off that side of the ground, Tilak was quick to walk across and fetch length balls from outside off using his long levers and belt them wide of long-on and over cow corner.

The shot of the innings was the one off Ngarava. Having tricked the bowler into believing he would shuffle, he stood his ground and cleared his front leg to swing over long-on. One ball later, he raced to a 23-ball half-century, with three overs remaining. India eventually managed 31 off the last three, with some help from Rinku Singh, to finish with 219.

Bennett should have been out in the very first over of the chase when he got a nick through to Kishan, except no one appealed. One ball later, he smashed debutant seamer Yash Thakur straight to extra cover, where Tilak put down a sitter. Bennett then raced to 32, but Thakur wasn’t to be denied for long as a slower delivery had Bennett toe-ending a scoop to Kishan behind the stumps. Thakur would later return to clean up Tadiwanashe Marumani with an offcutter.

Off his first delivery, Prince had Ben Curran get a thick outside edge to deep third for 1. And in his second over, the sixth of the innings, he had Raza nick a hard-length delivery as he attempted to drive on the up. He wouldn’t bowl another ball after pulling up from his delivery stride by clutching his left hamstring. He had figures of 2 for 10 off 1.2 overs and didn’t return for the remainder of the game.

That meant India had to employ Abhishek Sharma for a few overs, and he more than made it count by taking wickets towards the end as batter after batter kept slogging and finding the fielders. He finished with 3 for 17 to round off a day he would have liked to have contributed more with the bat.

Scores:
India 219 for 5 in 20 overs (Vaibhav Sooriyavanshi 20, Ishan Kishan 81, Shreyas Iyer 25,  Tilak Varma 60, Rinuk Singh 12 ; Blessing Muzarabani 1-36, Richard Ngarava 1-43, Brad Evans 1-44, Newman Nyamhuri 1-25, Brian Bennett 1-22) beat Zimbabwe 129 in 17.5 overs  (Brian Bennett 32, Dion Myers 12, Ryan Burl 20, Tadiwanashe Marumani 24, Bead Evans 19; Yash Thakur 2-30, Prince Yadav 2-10, Ravi Bishnoi 1-20, Shivam Dube 1-13, Tilak Varma 1-09, Abhishek Sharma 3-17 ) by 90 runs 

[Cricinfo]

Sri Lanka aced their third highest chase in women’s ODIs in emphatic fashion with centuries from Vishmi Gunarathne and Harshitha Samarawickrema to level the three-match series 1-1. For Pakistan, Sidra Amin’s  unbeaten 100 in the first innings went in vain as Pakistan could take only two wickets while trying to defend their score of 273.

Sri Lanka’s chase was sealed with 19 balls to spare, scripted largely by the second-wicket stand of 205 runs between Gunaratne and Samarawickrama. It was the first 200-plus stand for Sri Lanka for any wicket in women’s ODIs, and hence the highest for any wicket. The twin centuries from Sri Lanka’s top three was another statement that they can seal strong chases without their captain Chamari Athapaththu, who fell for 1 early on. Gunaratne and Samarawickrama struck their second centuries in the format and are the only Sri Lanka batters – apart from Athapaththu – to have reached three figures.

Athapaththu fell when her counterpart Fatima Sana drew an edge for caught behind at the start of the fifth over. Once Samarawickrama joined Gunaratne, the duo kept the run rate ticking largely around five an over. Gunaratne was the quicker one and brought up her half-century off 55 balls, while Samarawickrama took 74 balls to get there. They picked up pace with regular boundaries once the asking rate went beyond six an over after the halfway mark and brought it under five an over before the 40th over by when Gunaratne had scored her 107-ball century.

She was stumped for 123 when Sri Lanka were 52 runs adrift with 64 balls left and No. 4 Kavisha Dilhari scored at over run a ball to keep them on track. When only eight runs were left, Samarawickrama struck a four to bring up her hundred off 119 balls before Dilhari hit the winning boundary.

Pakistan had earlier been asked to bat and were led by Amin’s knock after their openers couldn’t convert their starts. Amin dropped anchor at one end while Ayesha Zafar scored a quick 49 off 45 before she was bowled by Dilhari in the 27th over. Muneeba Ali then joined Amin for a steady but slower stand of 88 from 105 balls that took them past 220. Sana scored a quickfire 25 off 18 and Amin brought up her seventh ODI century in the last over but it wasn’t enough.

Scores:
Sri Lanka Women 275 for 2 in 46.5 overs (Vishmi Gunaratne 123, Harshitha Samarawickrama 100*, Kavisha Dilhari 40*; Fatima Sana 1-44) beat Pakistan Women  273 for 5 in 50 overs (Sidra Amin 100*, Ayesha Zafar 49, Muneeba Ali 45; Chethana Vimukthi 1-26) by eight wickets

Sidra Amin hit 13 fours in her unbeaten century [SLC]

Harshitha Samarawickrama and Vishmi Gunaratne put on a massive partnership [SLC]

[Cricinfo]

MCA – HONOUR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2026

A three wicket haul by Savindu Uthsara [3-33]  followed by unbeaten half tons by Akeel Inham [67*] and Romesh Suranga [71* off 92 balls with 6×4 and 3×6] propelled Abans Group to an eight wicket win in the MCA Champions League 2026 powered by Hounour mobile phones

The match was reduced to 45 overs per team due to a delay in preparing the De Zoysa Stadium in Moratuwa on Saturday, and Ceylinco General Insurance who  opted to bat first could only manage to post 171/9 in 44.5 overs.  Randun Edirisinghe and Sanithu Amarasinghe contributed 40 plus scores while Savidu Uthsara and Sudara Dakshina shared five wickets between them.

In the chase, Akeel and Romesh with unbeaten half tons helped Abans Group achieve the win with 8 wickets in hand and nearly 11 overs remaining. Abans Group have won two games in four outings and have risen to second spot in the points table

Scores:
Ceylinco General Insurance 171/9  in 44.5 overs  [Randunu Edirisinghe 43, Sanithu Amarasinghe 48; Savindu Uthsara 3-33, Sudara Dakshina 2-25]
Abans Group 175/2 in 34.1 overs [Akeel Inham 67*, Romesh Suranga71*; Kasun Karunathilake 1-35]