By Agencies

It was the toughest match of the three-game series but India emerged from the third and final T20I against Zimbabwe with a 35-run victory to win the series 3-0.

On what turned out to be the toughest wicket for batting all series, Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided to bat as he expected the pitch to play slower and slower as the game wore on.

India got off to a brisk start thanks to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi but still found themselves a wicket down in the second over when Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for two.

After that, there were partnerships all the way through the innings, with Sooryavanshi putting on 75 for the second wicket with Ishan Kishan and another 50 with Tilak Varma before he was out caught off the bowling of Wessly Madhevere for a magnificently played 81 off 49 balls that included eight fours and four sixes.

Despite the platform he laid down, India failed to kick on in the back end of their innings and played their way to 192/5 off 20 overs, their lowest total of the series.

It could have been even worse but for a brisk 25 off 14 balls by Rinku Singh to keep their run rate around the 10-run per over mark.

Blessing Blessing Muzarabani was the pick of the Zimbabwe bowlers, returning figures of 1/33 in his four overs and was desperately unlucky not to pick up a couple more.

Brad Evans picked up two scalps, with Sikandar Raza and Madhevere also picking up wickets but they were all pretty expensive in the context of the innings.

The hosts’ reply could not have got off to a worse start, with Mayank Yadav getting Brian Bennett out caught off the first ball of the innings.

Zimbabwe put up some resistance with Ryan Burl top scoring with 54 off 43 balls and Ben Curran (20 off 19 balls) and Wessly Madhevere (28 off 25 balls) both getting in but they struggled to keep up with the run rate against a well-disciplined India attack.

Yadav was immaculate with the ball, returning figures of 3/29 off his four overs. Ashok Sharma was incredibly difficult to score off, conceding just 20 runs in his four overs and also picking up a wicket, while Ravi Bishnoi was also economical with figures of 1/24 off four overs.

Yash Thakur picked up a couple of wickets but was by far the most expensive of the India bowlers, conceding 45 runs off his 24 balls.

Ultimately, consistent wickets and tight bowling resulted in Zimbabwe ending up on 157/7 off their 20 overs, falling 35 runs short and handing India a 3-0 T20I series sweep.