New Zealand delivered a crushing defeat to Zimbabwe in Thursday's match of the Zimbabwe Tri-Nation Series 2025. Batting first, New Zealand posted a b score of 190 runs thanks to brilliant half-centuries from Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra.
Zimbabwe T20 Tri Series 2025: In the league match of the Zimbabwe T20 Tri Series 2025 played in Harare, New Zealand defeated Zimbabwe by 60 runs to register their fourth consecutive win in the tournament. In this match, Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra's half-centuries and Ish Sodhi's brilliant bowling led the Kiwi team to victory. In a one-sided performance, New Zealand first scored 190 runs while batting and then bundled out Zimbabwe for just 130 runs.
Seifert and Rachin's explosive batting
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and decided to bat first. However, the team suffered an early setback when opener Tim Robinson was dismissed for just 10 runs. But after that, Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra took charge and formed a crucial 108-run partnership for the second wicket.
Seifert played an aggressive innings of 75 runs off 45 balls with the help of 1 six and 9 fours. At the same time, Rachin Ravindra scored 63 runs in 39 balls, in which he hit 2 sixes and 7 fours. Thanks to the half-centuries of both the players, New Zealand scored 190 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs.
Zimbabwe's batting was lackluster, Ish Sodhi's career-best performance
Chasing the target of 191 runs, Zimbabwe had a very poor start. The team kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the entire team was reduced to 130 runs in 18.5 overs. As many as 8 batsmen of Zimbabwe could not even cross the double-figure mark. Only Tony Munyonga was seen struggling a bit, who played an innings of 40 runs in 28 balls.
New Zealand's spinner Ish Sodhi performed brilliantly in bowling. He took 4 wickets for just 12 runs in his 4 overs. This was his best spell in T20 international career. He played an important role in breaking the backbone of the opposition team and due to this performance, he was also chosen as the 'Player of the Match'.
New Zealand and South Africa will now clash in the final
Talking about the Zimbabwe Tri-Nation Series 2025, Zimbabwe's performance in the group stage was very disappointing. They faced defeat in all their 4 matches and were out of the race for the final. On the other hand, New Zealand won all the four matches and secured the top spot in the points table. South Africa made their place in the final by winning two matches. Both their defeats were against New Zealand.
Now this exciting Tri-Series has reached its decisive turn. The final match will be played between New Zealand and South Africa on 26 July 2025. This match will start from 4:30 PM Indian time.
