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Skipper Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma guided Team India to a nine-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the second T20I at Raipur on Sunday.
With this win, India has won the three-match T20I series 2-0, with one more game to go. India chased 103 set by Zimbabwe in 8.5 overs, with Shafali getting a half-century after Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to bat first. Indian bowlers struck regularly, reducing Zimbabwe to 30/3 in 8.1 overs. Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano (34 in 32 balls, with five fours) and skipper Josephine Nkomo (27* in 35 balls, with two fours) put on a 45-run stand for the fourth wicket. Zimbabwe ended at 102/8 in 20 overs, with Niki Prasad (2/7 in two overs), Kranti Gaud (1/15 in four overs) and Deepti Sharma (1/13 in three overs) being the pick of the bowlers. Shree Charani and Nandni Sharma also got a wicket each. Chasing 103 runs, the red-hot pairing of Smriti and Shafali had an incredible start, reaching the 50-run mark in 4.3 overs. The standout moment of the partnership included Mandhana clubbing Nyasha Gwanzura for five boundaries in the fifth over. In the next over, Shafali smoked Michelle Mavunga for two fours and a six. Shafali reached her ninth fifty-plus score of 2026 in 24 balls, with six fours and four sixes. Beloved Biza ended the 96-run stand, removing her for 25-ball 55. Mandhana (47* in 25 balls, with six fours and two sixes) closed the match with a six in 8.5 overs, with Anushka Sharma (1*) unbeaten. India Women won their 17th T20I win in 2026 (26 matches), their most in a calendar year. They had previously won 16 out of 23 completed games in 2018. The 96-run stand was Mandhana and Shafali's ninth 50-plus stand of the year, the most by any batting pair during a calendar year in women's T20Is. They also became the first pair to aggregate 1000-plus runs as a pair (any wicket) in a calendar year in Women's T20Is. Shafali, holding the record for most runs in a calendar year in women's T20Is, with 922 runs in 26 innings at an average of 38.41 and a strike rate of over 165, including a century and eight fifties, surpassed her partner Mandhana for most fifty-plus scores by a batter in women's T20Is during a calendar year, with nine such scores as compared to her skipper's eight (eight fifties) in 2024. (ANI)
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