Harare: Propelled by some astonishing batting from E Chigumbura (54* off 26 balls), Zimbabwe pulled out a thriller in their favour as they beat India by two runs in the first T20 match at Harare Sports Club, here on Saturday.

Needing eight runs of the last over and with skipper MS Dhoni on the crease, things looked easy for the visitors, but Madziva bowled a superb over that gave hosts a thrilling win.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni said, “Ultimately, the contest is between the bat and ball. I felt the last ball bowled by Madziva was brilliant. We did not play to our potential. A lot of wickets were not full-fledged shots. It was more like giving catching practice. You may be doing well in the domestic circuit but there is more pressure when you go from India A to India. I hope it’s a good learning curve for youngsters. Lots of errors were committed by the batsmen.”

Zimbabe captain Graeme Cremer said, “Good to come back from the losses in ODI series. A lot of pressure off me now. We are not going to stop here. We know Elton can always be dangerous. He is one innings away from doing something special again. But today’s match could have gone either way,” he said.

Meanwhile, Man-of-the-Match Elton Chigumbura said, “It was a good effort from the whole team. Everyone contributed today. This one will give us the confidence to do the same thing again and improve.”

End of over 20 (5 runs) India 168/6 (3 runs required)