What MS Dhoni and Neville Madziva had to say about the “brilliant” last ball of the first T20I

When Indian captain Dhoni was asked about the final over, he considered the last ball as a brilliant delivery.

The first Twenty20 International (T20I) between Zimbabwe and India at Harare ended in a dramatic way as India lost the game in the final over where they needed four runs of the final ball. The hosts were whitewashed in the One-Day Internationals (ODI) earlier and had their hopes pinned on the T20I series. The first T20I started with some power hitting from Zimbabwe’s former captain Hamilton Masakadza and in the end, the job was done by Elton Chigumbura as he scored an excellent 26-ball 54, which included seven sixes and a boundary.

It was certain that the chase wouldn’t be a cakewalk with India losing their opening batsman KL Rahul on the very first ball of the innings. The Zimbabwean bowlers did a god job by chipping wickets at regular intervals and didn’t give extra runs. They kept the pressure on Indian side on a consistent basis. Every bowler from Zimbabwe delivered decent spells but the most crucial over was bowled by Neville Madziva. He was asked to bowl the final over of the game in which India needed only eight. Also Read: Twitter reacts to Team India’s shocking loss against Zimbabwe in the first T20I

Every ball was either a yorker or full outside off stump, which usually doesn’t allow any batsman to score runs easily. He conceded five from the over by scalping one important wicket of Axar Patel. Notably, he bowled his last delivery to one of the world’s best finisher — MS Dhoni, where India needed four to win and Madziva leaked just a single. Post-match, when he asked about his last over while bowling to Dhoni, Madviza said, “Just two overs before, (Graeme) Cremer told me that I will be bowling the last over. When he told me that, I told myself that whatever the score, even if they needed five off the last over, I just told myself that I am just going to give it my all.”

Madziva knew that he is going to be bowling to one of the best finishers but he tried to avoid that fact and added, “Obviously, when he (Dhoni) was there, I didn’t look at the name honestly. Because if I had that in mind, the first ball was going to go for a six and next for a four. I just told myself, I am just bowling to any other guy here and I am just going to stick to my plans. When you’re bowling death, what I realised from the couple of matches I’ve played is that you don’t have to rush yourself. So I had to take my time, calm myself down and bowl.”

Similarly, when Indian captain Dhoni was asked about the final over, he considered the last ball as a brilliant delivery. “Ultimately, the contest is between the bat and ball. I felt the last ball was brilliant We did not play to potential. A lot of wickets were not full-fledged shots, more like catching practice. You may be doing well in the domestic circuit but there is more pressure when you go from India A to India.”

This was the fifth incident where Indian team failed to chase and ended on being a losing side in a T20I match with Dhoni being unbeaten. Interestingly, Madziva made his T20I debut against India last year and was hammered for 46 runs in his spell of four overs. Seems like, he sought revenge by winning the first T20I for Zimbabwe.