India captain Smriti Mandhana praised her bowlers for 'coming together' as India sealed the T20I series against Zimbabwe with a dominant nine-wicket win in the second match at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Sunday, 18 October. The victory marks a winning start to Mandhana's full-time captaincy era.

Bowlers Lay the Foundation

Niki Prasad was the standout with figures of 2-7 in just two overs, while pacers Kranti Gaud and Nandni Sharma and spinners Deepti Sharma and Sree Charani each claimed a wicket as India restricted Zimbabwe to 102/8 in their 20 overs. It was a marked improvement from the first T20I, where Zimbabwe had posted 114/5.

'Well, it was a good one today. I felt the bowlers were really on the mark today, much better than the first match. They were executing their yorkers, slower ones, bouncers really well. Then spinners, of course, Deepti, Shree, Niki coming in and bowling those two overs,' Mandhana said at the post-match presentation. She added: 'So overall I feel like, yeah, the bowling unit really came together today. Of course, we could have gotten better with the catching today. That's something which we can be critical about.'

Tactical Adjustment Pays Off

India made a deliberate tactical tweak in the second game, opting to bowl fuller lengths — a lesson drawn from studying Zimbabwe's batting patterns in the series opener. 'Yeah, as we discussed in the last match, that unknown — of course, we had seen a few batters from the Zimbabwe team, but again today we had much better plans in a way because we knew how they batted in the first game,' Mandhana noted. She credited the bowlers for their execution, saying: 'You can plan as much as you can, but bowlers have to come and execute, and today I felt they were really on the mark.'

Mandhana and Shafali's 96-Run Stand

The chase was all but settled by a 96-run opening partnership between Mandhana and vice-captain Shafali Verma. Verma blazed her way to 55 off 25 balls, while Mandhana contributed an unbeaten 47 off 25 balls to finish the match in clinical fashion. Zimbabwe captain Josephine Nkomo had called the Indian run-chase a 'masterclass'.

'Shafali was doing her thing in the powerplay; the way she was just whacking, I was really happy to give her a single. And whenever my chances came, I took those on. But yeah, I mean, that's the brand of cricket we would love playing, and we'll keep continuing to do that,' Mandhana said.

What It Means for India Women's Cricket

This series win is the first competitive assignment under Mandhana's full-time captaincy, and the comprehensive nature of both victories signals a cohesive unit taking shape. Notably, the team's ability to correct tactical shortcomings between games — from the bowling lengths to improved field settings — points to sharp in-series adaptability. The catching, however, remains an area Mandhana publicly flagged for improvement ahead of future assignments.