HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — India captain Shubman Gill regained his form with a half-century as the tourists beat Zimbabwe by 23 runs Wednesday in the third Twenty20.
Gill scored 66 runs off 49 balls, including seven fours and three sixes, as India notched up 182-4 in 20 overs. Ruturaj Gaikwad also scored 49 off 28 balls.
In reply, Zimbabwe finished with 159-6 as off-spin all-rounder Washington Sundar took 3-15 in four overs. Dion Myers top scored for the hosts with 65 not out off 49 balls, including seven fours and a six.
The win gives India a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. It won the second T20 by 100 runs, after losing the first by 13 runs.
India was bolstered by the inclusion of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube, who were part of its T20 World Cup winning campaign.
Opting to bat, Gill and Jaiswal opened the innings with Abhishek Sharma, who scored a maiden century in the previous game, shifting down to No. 3.
Gill and Jaiswal put on 67 off 50 balls for the first wicket. Jaiswal, who didn’t feature in the World Cup, returned to India’s playing XI with 36 off 27 balls. He hit four fours and two sixes.
Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza struck twice in quick succession as India first lost Jaiswal and then Sharma for 10.
Gaikwad, batting at four, then put on 72 off 44 balls with Gill for the third wicket. Gill notched up his highest score of the series, scoring 50 off 36 balls as he anchored the Indian innings.
He was out in the 18th over, trying to gain a march as India crossed 150. Gaikwad and Sanju Samson (12 not out) then scored 24 off 11 balls to help propel the score past 180.
Chasing 183, Zimbabwe was rocked at the start as pacers Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan shared three wickets.
Khan struck twice in two overs as the hosts were down to 19-3 in 3.1 overs. Khan finished with 2-39 from four overs.
Sundar then broke through twice in the middle order, dismissing Raza (15) and Jonathan Campbell (1) as Zimbabwe was reduced to 39-5 in seven overs.
It made a decent recovery thanks to a 77-run partnership off 57 balls between Myers and Clive Madande, who scored 37 off 26 balls.
Sundar again provided the breakthrough as the match slipped from Zimbabwe’s hands. Myers and Wellington Masakadza (18 not out) put on 43 off 21 balls to reduce the margin of defeat.
“It feels amazing to play again for the country," Sundar said. “It was definitely a better batting wicket than the previous two games, so we executed our plans well to restrict them. Hopefully we can seal the series on Saturday.”
The final two T20s will be played on Saturday and Sunday.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Zimbabwe's cricket captain Sikandar Raza tosses the coin while India's Shubman Gill, left, looks on at the Harare Sports Club, Wednesday, July 10' 2024 prior to the start of their third T20 match. (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)
India's Yashasvi Jaiswal bats, during the third T20 match between Zimbabwe and India, at the Harare Sports Club, in Harare, Wednesday, July 10. 2024. (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)
India's Shubman Gill plays a ball at the wicket, during the third T20 match between Zimbabwe and India, at the Harare Sports Club, in Harare, Wednesday, July 10. 2024. (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Saturday repeatedly swerved from a message focused on the economy into non-sequiturs and personal attacks, including thrice declaring that he was better looking than Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump wound back and forth between hitting his points on economic policy and delivering a smattering of insults and impressions of President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron as he held a rally in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The former president has seemed to struggle to adjust to his new opponent after Democrats replaced their nominee. Over the past week, he has diverged during campaign appearances away from the policies he was billed to speak about and instead diverted to a rotation of insults.
Trump seemed seemed to spent more of his rally on Saturday than usual sticking to the script, but he diverged early and often.
As he attacked Democrats for inflation at the top of his speech, he asked his crowd of supporters, “You don’t mind if I go off teleprompter for a second, do you? Joe Biden hates her.”
Trump's rally was in a swath of the pivotal battleground state where he hopes conservative, white working-class voters near Biden’s hometown will boost the Republican's chances of winning back the White House.
His remarks Saturday came as Democrats prepare for their four-day national convention that kicks off Monday in Chicago and will mark the party's welcoming of Harris as their nominee. Her replacement of Biden less than four months before the November election reinvigorated Democrats and their coalition, and has presented a new challenge for Trump.
Trump on Saturday hammered Harris on the economy, associating her with the Biden administration’s inflation woes and likening her latest proposal against price gouging to measures in communist nations. Trump has said a federal ban on price gouging for groceries would lead to food shortages, rationing and hunger and on Saturday asked why she hadn't worked to solve prices when she and Biden were sworn into office in 2021.
“Day one for Kamala was three and a half years ago. So why didn’t she do it then? So this is day 1,305," Trump said.
To address high prices, Trump said he would sign an executive order on his first day sworn in as president “directing every cabinet secretary and agency head to use every power we have to drive prices down, but we’re going to drive them down in a capitalist way, not in a communist way,” he said.
But he maundered in his remarks, touching on the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 to doing impressions of Macron’s French accent. But he took issue with the way his free-wheeling style is typically portrayed in news reports.
“They will say he’s rambling. I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy.” “I don’t ramble.”
Trump laced in attacks on Harris’ laugh and said she was “not a very good wordsmith” and mocked the names of the CNN anchors who moderated the debate he had with Biden in June.
When he began musing on Harris' recent image on the cover of Time magazine, he forked off, commenting on the picture's resemblance to classic Hollywood icons Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor and then took issue with a Wall Street Journal columnist remarking earlier this month on Harris' beauty.
"I am much better looking than her," Trump said, drawing laughs from the crowd. “I’m a better looking person than Kamala."
He predicted financial ruin for the country and Pennsylvania in particular if Harris wins, citing her past opposition to fracking, an oil and gas extraction process.
“Your state’s going to be ruined anyway. She’s totally anti-fracking,” Trump said.
In 2016 and 2020, Trump crushed his Democratic rivals in the county that is home to blue-collar Wilkes-Barre. The Rust Belt region, home to Biden’s native Scranton, offers Trump hope and helps him spotlight Democratic vulnerabilities after the president ended his reelection bid and Harris launched her campaign.
Her campaign has tried to soften her stance on fracking, saying she would not ban it, even though that was her position when she was seeking the 2020 presidential nomination.
Some Democrats in Pennsylvania acknowledge the challenges but say the economy is what concerns most people in the area.
On Sunday, Harris plans a bus tour starting in Pittsburgh, with a stop in Rochester, a small town to the north. Trump has scheduled a visit Monday to a plant that manufactures nuclear fuel containers in York. Trump's running mate JD Vance is expected to be in Philadelphia that day.
Trump's Saturday rally was his fifth at the arena in Wilkes-Barre, the largest city in Luzerne County, where he has had victories the past two elections. Biden bested Trump in neighboring Lackawanna County, where the Democrat has long promoted his working-class roots in Scranton.
Some of Biden's loyal supporters in this former industrial city of 76,000 were upset to see party leaders put pressure the president to step aside.
Diane Munley, 63, says she called dozens of members of Congress to vouch for Biden. Munley eventually came to terms with Biden's decision and is now very supportive of Harris.
“I can’t deny the enthusiasm that’s been going on with this ticket right now. I am so into it,” Munley said. “It just wasn’t happening with Joe, and I couldn’t see it at the time because I was so connected to him.”
Robert A. Bridy, 64, a laborer from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, traveled on Saturday to the rally to show support for Trump. He said the election feels tight in this state and added that his union and a close friend are trying to convince him to vote for Harris and other Democrats, but he has voted for Trump since 2016.
Bridy called Trump a “working class guy like us.” Trump is a billionaire who built his fortune in real estate.
Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Dave McCormick, the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, arrives to speak at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Supporters cheer at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A supporters attends a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump looks up at a campaign video at a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
The crowd waits for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump to speak at a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
A person walks past cardboard cutouts of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump before a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Timothy Denhollander, of New Jersey, finishes a hot dog before a rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A supporter takes a selfie with a person wearing a Donald Trump mask before a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
"Breakdancer for Trump" Victor Moon poses in a Donald Trump mask before campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
Merchandise is pictured before a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
Merchandise is pictured before a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
A supporter walks past a cardboard cutout of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump before a campaign rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
Trump is on tap to rally Pennsylvania voters near Biden's native Scranton and counter Harris' surge
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at Trump National Golf Club, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Bedminster, N.J. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Trump is on tap to rally Pennsylvania voters near Biden's native Scranton and counter Harris' surge
