Harmanpreet Kaur's unbeaten 91 seals India's 3-0 sweep of Zimbabwe in Raipur

Harmanpreet Kaur's unbeaten 91 from 41 balls carried India to 216 for 7 and a 92-run win in Raipur that completed a 3-0 sweep of Zimbabwe

India won the third and final T20I at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium by 92 runs, the largest margin by runs they have managed in the format at home. Smriti Mandhana, in her first series as captain, chose to bat.

Shafali Verma made 69 from 37 balls at the top before Harmanpreet, batting at No. 4, took the innings away in the closing overs. Zimbabwe were held to 124 for 7 in reply, Sharne Mayers making 60 and Nandani Sharma taking 3-18.

It was the first bilateral series India have played against Zimbabwe in women's cricket, and Harmanpreet's first fifty in eight innings since she stepped down from the captaincy earlier in October.

Harmanpreet finds her range

Harmanpreet came in during the eighth over and took time to settle, moving to one boundary from her first 12 balls on a surface she was still reading.

The innings turned in an over from Kudzai Chigora that went for 20 runs, two fours and two sixes among them. Her fifty came from 25 deliveries, and she finished on 91 not out with 10 fours and five sixes.

The 37-year-old was in tears during her on-field interview afterwards. "I don't think there is any pressure anymore. I think now it's all about enjoying myself on the field and I think that's what I want to do," she said.

She traced the innings to one early shot. "I think I got a lot of confidence from that shot, and then I just thought let me just keep going and let's see how it goes," she said, before thanking her batting coach, Himanshu Chawla, "who has been working really hard and understood the kind of batting I can do".

Shafali and Anushka set the platform

Shafali and Anushka Sharma put on 54 from 32 balls for the first wicket, and India were 59 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.

Anushka fell for 28 from 20 balls, and India reached the halfway mark on 91 for 2. It was Shafali's second successive fifty of the series.

Zimbabwe's wickets came in a cluster at the death, four of them in the last five overs, though that phase still cost them 62 runs. Beloved Biza was the pick of the attack with 3-50 from her four overs.

Mayers alone holds up the chase

Kelis Ndlovu was dismissed from the first ball of the reply, and Zimbabwe never recovered the rate.

Mayers made 60 from 49 balls, hitting all four of her side's sixes, and added 82 with Biza, who made 44 from 50. The stand came at barely a run a ball, which settled the result long before it ended.

Nandani struck twice in the final over to finish with 3-18. Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad took one wicket each.

A record margin at home

The 92-run margin beats the 72-run win over Bangladesh in Bengaluru in 2016 as India's biggest in a home women's T20I.

India struck 11 sixes across their innings, five of them by Harmanpreet and five by Shafali.

Vadodara next

The sides move to Vadodara for three one-day internationals on 23, 26 and 28 October, which count towards the ICC Women's Championship 2025-29.

Mandhana said rotating her batting order in Raipur had served its purpose — "so it's always good to have some game time and always good to have some runs behind your back" — and that she was "really happy and pleased with the way Niki, Shafali, everyone chipped in".

She also pointed to conditions ahead of the Champions Trophy, the six-team T20 tournament India host in Mumbai and Vadodara in February. "We're going to have the next three months going ahead; there's going to be a lot of dew till we approach the Champions Trophy, so the kind of combination we need and the bowlers - the more the merrier," she said.

Scorecard: India Women 216 for 7 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 91*, Shafali Verma 69; Beloved Biza 3-50) beat Zimbabwe Women 124 for 7 in 20 overs (Sharne Mayers 60, Beloved Biza 44; Nandani Sharma 3-18) by 92 runs.

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