After paying for too many strokes too early in the first match, Zimbabwe seemed to have erred on the side of caution in the second, but Tatenda Taibu and Charles Coventry took Zimbabwe to their second-best Twenty20 total. Sweeps and reverse-sweeps from Taibu and a late cameo from Coventry took them to a mildly competitive total after an inexplicably slow start had them down at 64 for 3 in the 13th over.
There were 48 dot balls in the innings, five of them because Hamilton Masakadza shouldered arms to the first six deliveries he faced, one of them a wide. He was out to the first aggressive shot he played, hitting straight down mid-off's throat. Brendan Taylor and Chamu Chibhabha didn't try any big shots off the seamers, and Ashok Dinda and R Vinay Kumar got through the first five overs for just 16 runs.
In the sixth over, Chibhabha tried the expansive slog sweep and was bowled by Pragyan Ojha. Taylor managed a couple of lovely boundaries down the ground, but there weren't enough singles off his bat. When he was taken superbly at the long-off boundary by Yusuf Pathan, he had reached only 26 off 31.
Taibu, though, was playing a different game: sweeping, reverse-sweeping, running crazily fast, hitting the spinners off their lengths. He may have hit only two boundaries - a sweep of each variety - but had raced to 25 off 18 when Taylor got out. Coventry came out and made you wonder just why the top order batted so slowly. He reverse-swept R Ashwin for two boundaries in the 16th over, and between those two hits fit an exquisite six over extra cover. Vinay offered him length in the next over, and Coventry got another six.
In the 18th over, Dinda removed Coventry with a perfect yorker. Elton Chigumbura played a mini cameo, hitting Ashwin in the 19th over for six, six and four, but Suresh Raina took a blinder running behind from midwicket towards deep midwicket to control the damage. Taibu didn't manage any more boundaries, and his incredible running helped them get 10 runs in the last over.
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