India sealed its first series win under Smriti Mandhana’s permanent captaincy with a crushing nine-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the second T20I at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Sunday, October 19.

Smriti and vice-captain Shafali Varma added an opening stand of 96 inside eight overs to help the side haul down Zimbabwe’s total of 102 for eight with 67 deliveries to spare.

Zimbabwe skipper Josephine Nkomo won the toss and opted to bat, trying to build on the batting positives from the first T20I where the side managed 114/5 powered by sprightly efforts by Kelis Ndhlovu and Sharne Mayers, who both scored forties.

But India had done its homework and did now allow Zimbabwe any room for adventure. A solitary boundary in the PowerPlay coming off the final ball of the sixth over would set the tone for a Zimbabwean effort that saw a disappointing 71 dot balls. India’s pacers targetted the stumps while the spinners slowed the game down even further to draw errors.

Sree Charani, who tends to leak runs every now and then, was at the receiving end of a 11-run opening over, but recovered well thereafter.

Niki Prasad, who starred commendably with the bat alongside Deepti Sharma in the first T20I, picked up her maiden T20I wicket off her first ball in the format, removing Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano in the 15th.

Zimbabwe eventually set India a 103-run target, which Smriti and Shafali made seem like child’s play. The Indian reply featured 12 boundaries and six sixes, making what everyone expected to a sluggish track seem like a completely different strip for the Indians. While Shafali fell soon after her fifty, the game and the series were sealed quite comfortably, with the captain scoring the winning runs.

While India showed improvements with bat and ball, a few straightforward catches were shelled which will go into Smriti and Munish Bali’s to-do list ahead of the final T20I before the series moves to Vadodara for the ODI leg.