Raina and Dhoni came for the rescue of Indians in the chase - The 39th match of the cricket world cup 2015 was played between Indian and Zimbabwe. It was a Pool B encounter in which Zimbabwe was in a must win situation to have a slightest of the chance to qualify for the next round of the tournament. This match was also crucial as it may have been the last match for the Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor as he announced his retirement just before the match. In this match after winning the toss India decided to field first.
The Indian bowlers before this match were on fire and started off in the same fashion for this one too. They took 3 quick wickets to throw Zimbabwe in the back-foot early in the innings. The top order batsmen collapsed and the team was struggling at 33-3 in 11 overs. It was here when Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams joined hands and helped the team move out of the pressure. They took the score to 126 in 29 overs. Williams after completing his half century lost his wicket and brought in Craig Ervine to the crease. He played a small cameo with Taylor to take the team to 235 in 42 overs where Taylor departed after scoring 138 runs. His wicket proved to be the turning point as rest of the team crumbled in search of runs. They were bowled out at 287 in 49th over of the game. Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma took 3 wickets each.
The Indians did well to stop Zimbabwe to a score of 287 and it was time for the batsmen to click while chasing a score of 288. The opening pair didn’t last long for team India as at a score of 21 both the batsmen were back in the pavilion. Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane had a small partnership as they took the team score to 71 when Rahane fell scoring only 19 runs. Kohli too lost his wicket after scoring 38 runs. Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni came to the crease with the intent of making their team wins. They batted brilliantly and paced their innings well to take their team to the 7th consecutive win. Raina scored 110 runs while Dhoni scored 85 as Indians chased down the total in just 48.4 overs. Raina was named as the man of the match and with this loss Zimbabwe were sent packing their bags.