Bowlers, Shafali, Mandhana power India to series win

India 104 for 1 (Shafali 55, Mandhana 47*) beat Zimbabwe 102 for 8 (Mugeri-Tiripano 34, Nkomo 27, Prasad 2-7) by nine wickets

Zimbabwe opted to bat and faced 71 dot balls. They might have known this Raipur pitch was going to be grippy and slow: they had batted first in the first T20I on Friday, put in by Smriti Mandhana in her first act as full-time captain, and scoring only 114 for 5. On Sunday, they fared worse, finishing on 102 for 8. But if Zimbabwe captain Josephine Nkomo had hoped for another miracle collapse like India's in the first game, when they were 19 for 4 in the chase, Zimbabwe were greeted here with a thumping loss - by nine wickets and 67 balls to spare - instead.

Mandhana had departed for nine in the first T20I, but in the second, she stayed till the end, scoring an unbeaten 47 off 25. If Zimbabwe had been in second gear through their first innings, India began in fifth and never decelerated, thanks to her 96-run opening stand with Shafali Verma.

The right-handed Shafali was even quicker than Mandhana, bashing her way to 55 off 24 before she holed out to long-on in the eighth over. By then, India needed just seven runs to seal the chase, which Mandhana duly did with a pristine six over extra cover, securing her first series win as full-time captain.

Full report to follow...