India defended their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals by defeating a defiant Zimbabwe in a high-scoring match in Chennai.
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Published February 26, 2026
India stormed back to victory in the T20 World Cup, suffering a crushing defeat by 72 runs against a defiant Zimbabwe in the crucial Super Eights match in Chennai, setting up a de facto quarter-final against the West Indies.
The defending champions smashed a staggering target of 257 runs against a feisty African team that refused to bow out of the tournament without a fight at the Chidambaram Stadium in Massachusetts on Thursday.
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Prolific Zimbabwe opener Brian Bennett scored 97 runs with no outs but was unable to see his team cross the line as they continued their excellent World Cup campaign, hammering out 184-6 against the pre-tournament favorites in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.
Pace bowler Arshdeep Singh was the standout bowler for India in a high-scoring match with 3 wins and 24 losses in four overs.
Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya were the most economical with the ball in a high-scoring match played at one of the World Cup’s smaller venues. Although both were wicketless, they conceded just 21 runs in three overs, with Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube each picking up a wicket.
Earlier, Sanju Samson made the most of his return to the playing eleven by hitting six from the second ball of India’s innings and scoring 24 runs off 15 balls.
His attacking performance calmed down out-of-form opener Abhishek Sharma and gave him time to mount an attack from the other end. The world’s top-ranked T20 batsman top-scored with 55 off 30 balls in an innings comprising four fours and four sixes.
He later thanked his teammates and support staff for continuing to believe in him despite his poor performance in previous games.
“They told me, ‘You have done this before too,'” Abhishek said after the innings.
While the rest of India’s top-order and middle-order players contributed to the total, it was Pandya’s 23-ball fifty at the end of the innings that pushed the home team towards a score of over 250 runs.
Pandya and batting partner Tilak Varma shared an 84-run partnership that included 84 sixes and five fours as the Indian pair defeated the Zimbabwean bowlers.
India’s position in the Group 1 points table remained unchanged after the match, but the co-hosts will now face West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday night.
South Africa advanced to the semi-finals with a nine-wicket victory over West Indies in a day game in Mumbai. They will face Zimbabwe in their final Group 1 match in New Delhi on Sunday.
