India came up with yet another clinical display to hand Zimbabwe a 23-run defeat in the third T20 International at the Harare Sports Club in Harare on Wednesday. The win helped the visitors take a 2-1 lead in the five-match rubber.

India welcomed their T20 World Cup-winning trio – Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube – into their XI, leaving out B Sai Sudharsan, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel. The visiting side also swapped in left-arm fast bowler Khaleel Ahmed for Mukesh Sharma.

Captain Shubman Gill called the toss correctly for the third time in a row, and after opting to bat, the right-hander came out with an eye on regaining his form. With his new opening partner — Jaiswal going all guns blazing, Gill took his time to get himself in before coming up with a solid 49-ball 66 to set the tone for India’s eventual 182 for 4.

Abhishek Sharma, who smashed a brilliant century in the second T20I, was pushed back in the batting order to accommodate for a relatively senior Yashasvi Jaiswal, but the ploy didn’t work for India as the swashbuckling Punjab southpaw fell for a 9-ball 10.

Meanwhile, Gill got ample support from Jaiswal at the top of the order, with the opening duo putting up a 67-run partnership before Ruturaj Gaikwad joined forces with the skipper for a 72-run third-wicket partnership that took India past the par-score against the Zimbabweans, who would blame themselves for the multiple fielding lapses during India’s innings.

Ruturaj fell one shy of a second successive half-century after consuming 28 deliveries and pushing the ball beyond the boundary on four occasions and thrice over it. Sanju Samson also came up with a brief cameo with the help of two boundaries.

In reply, Zimbabwe were tottering at 39 for 5 at the end of the powerplay before Dion Myers and wicketkeeper Clive Madande came up with a brilliant counterattack to raise hopes for the home side.

The duo came up with a 77-run stand for the sixth wicket that lifted the hosts to 116 by the 17th over before Washington Sundar broke the partnership with Rinku Singh latching on to Clive’s top-edge at the deep backward square leg boundary. Clive departed after slamming 26-ball 37, comprising two boundaries and as many sixes.

With the Zimbabweans still needing 67 runs from the final three overs, Dion continued to take his chances against the Indian bowlers, and eventually brought up his maiden T20I fifty by depositing leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi over deep midwicket for a six.

Avesh Khan was handed the ball for the final over, and the pacer was dispatched for a 84m six between deep midwicket and long-on by Wellington Masakadza (18 not out off 10) first ball, before Myers milked the pacer for a couple of back-to-back fours to help Zimbabwe finish 23 runs short of India’s total. Dion eventually finished on an unbeaten 65 off 49 deliveries, laced with seven fours and a six.

For India, Avesh Khan (2/39) and Washington Sundar (3/15) were the pick of the bowlers, but will be hoping that their part-timers Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube come back stronger after the duo collectively leaked 50 runs without a wicket off their four overs.