Hurricane Raina blows Zimbabwe away

Suresh Raina scored a whirlwind 72 off 44 deliveries as he led India to an eight-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the second Twenty20 match to seal the series 2-0 at the Harare Sports Club.

The captain hit six boundaries and two sixes to make the hosts’ second highest total in Twenty20 internationals seem nothing as India reached the 141-run target with two overs to spare.

Zimbabwe, who used seven bowlers in total, failed to get regular breakthroughs as first Murali Vijay made 46 before Raina took charge to finish the game.

Zimbabwe had themselves to blame as they failed to take advantage of the powerplay - scoring only 21 runs in the six overs - and ended with 140 only after Tatenda Taibu’s 45 and a brief cameo by Charles Coventry, who made 28 off 13. Ashok Dinda was the pick of the bowlers with two for 15 off four overs.

The win was somewhat of a consolation for India, who lost to the same opponents twice in the tri-nation tournament and failed to reach the final of the event.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2010.